


The Continuing Adventures of Lock, Shock and Barrel.

by TrilliumWoods



Category: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-01-04 20:02:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 100,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12175671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrilliumWoods/pseuds/TrilliumWoods
Summary: This going to be a series of mostly light-hearted one-shots just capturing little moments in their lives - play time, pranks, and so on and so forth.  Will be updated as new ideas come to me or are suggested by readers.





	1. Lock Loses A Tooth - Rope Swing

"You're so stupid. Are you actually _trying_ to die?" Shock was standing with her arms crossed, wearing an expression of half disbelief and half disdain as she watched her cohorts toss the long rope out the open window of the treehouse.

"You're the one who did the knots, are you afraid you did it wrong or something?" sneered Lock, looking out the window to check the length of the rope and tugging at the knot to test it. "You're always bragging about how great you are at it so there shouldn't be any problem, right? Unless you're lying about that like you do about everything else." 

Shock glared at him. "My knots are perfect, I just don't trust this rope or the bar it's tied to. One of them is gonna break, and then you're gonna break, too, when you fall into the pit." Moments ago she had tied the rope in question around one of the wrought iron bars of the window frame and a few minutes before that she had tied an even larger knot at the other end of the rope to form sort of a makeshift seat. Lock had the brilliant (at least he thought it was brilliant) idea to make a rope swing and he and Barrel had coerced her into helping them since she was the best at tying good knots. Shock thought that a rope swing sounded like a lot of fun, but while she suggested they tie it from a more secure branch on a sturdy tree on the nearby hill Lock insisted that they do it right off of their treehouse, tied to whatever was convenient. Barrel had at first remained neutral like he usually did because he wasn't sure which one of them was right… on one hand, Lock sometimes had really dumb ideas. But on the other, Shock could sometimes be overly cautious. Usually - but not always - Lock won in the end because he was so good at persuading just about everyone to do what he wanted, even Shock. Barrel eventually decided that going all the way to the forest was just too much work, and besides that he thought it would be super-cool to have a rope swing right outside their window to play with whenever they wanted, so he chose to back up Lock this time.

"You're such a party-pooper." Barrel said, tugging on the rope as well. It seemed sturdy enough to him. Lock snickered and looked approvingly at him, then looked at Shock and teased:

"Yeah, Shock you're no fun. Just 'cus you're a big huge scaredy cat." 

She bristled at the insult. She wasn't scared, she was just smart! Those stupid boys hardly had two brain cells to rub together between them and were always getting in trouble for it, and half the time they got her in trouble, too. Shock loved causing trouble, of course - it came with the territory of being one of Halloween's finest trick-or-treaters.  She just preferred not to get caught and punished, and she also preferred to avoid inflicting too much bodily harm upon herself. However, she didn't really care if Lock and Barrel hurt themselves and they certainly seemed determined to do so right now, so she gave up trying to protect them. "I'm not scared, you two are just morons! Go ahead and fling yourselves out the window, see if I care! Just don't come crying to me when you break your necks." she huffed and turned away from them, sticking her nose in the air. 

"Whatever," said Lock, now pulling the rope back up through the window. "You're the one who's gonna be crying because it's going to be awesome and you're never gonna get to swing on it 'cus we're not sharing it with scaredy cats like you, are we, Barrel?"

"Nope!" Barrel giggled, and Shock turned back around to glare at him. 

"Good!" she spat, "I don't want to go on your stupid swing anyway!" 

"Yeah right, scaredy cat." Lock mocked her, and she huffed and turned her back to them once more. When Lock finally got the rope all the way back up he straddled it and put his feet on the knot that formed the seat and swung his legs over the window frame so they were hanging outside. Barrel felt a bit envious that Lock got to try it first, but he knew there was no way Lock would give up that privilege, plus it had been his idea so it was only fair for him to go first. Not to mention if Shock actually turned out to be right then it would be Lock falling into the pit and not himself, which was definitely preferable. So all in all Barrel was willing to wait for his turn, especially now that it had been decided Shock wasn't allowed to use the swing that meant he got to go second, which was better than his usual third place. 

"Adios, bat-brain. Nice knowing you." Shock said sarcastically, but Lock only stuck his tongue out at her before turning back to look out the window.  He felt 100% confident that this was going to be the most fun thing ever and he was very much looking forward to gloating at her because she was missing out by being such a bone-in-the-mud. He looked down one last time and readied himself - it was a truly staggering drop all the way down to the bottom of the pit, but he was sure that if he got enough momentum he could swing over to the ground and land safely. He was envisioning sticking an Olympic-gymnast-level-skilled landing and his friends would be incredibly impressed by and jealous of his physical prowess. On that triumphant and inspiring thought he wrapped his tail around the rope and clung on tightly with all four arms and legs, then launched himself out of the window.

"GERONIMO!!!" he shouted as he dropped like a rock out of sight, and Barrel and even Shock hurried to the window to watch - Barrel certain that he was having a blast and Shock certain that he was going to end up a bloody splat at the bottom of the pit. The rush of adrenaline coursing through Lock's little body was thrilling and he yelled and whooped excitedly as he neared the ground and tried to push his trajectory forward so that he would start actually swinging instead of just dropping - plus if he didn't start swinging in the correct direction soon he would smack right into the tree, which he hadn't really thought about until just at that moment. He unwrapped his tail from the rope and swished it through the air to try and help control his direction and he managed to just barely miss the tree as the rope went taut with a jolt and he nearly lost his grip. He swung wildly forward, barely missing the tree again, and decided it would probably be a good idea to make his glorious and graceful landing as soon as he swung back the right direction, but there was a problem that he wasn't aware of…

Back up in the treehouse Barrel was leaning as far out of the window as he could without falling out, grinning down at his cohort swinging crazily through the air and bursting with excitement for his turn. But Shock was looking at something else: as soon as the rope went taut she noticed the wrought iron window bar seem to bend a little. She watched it closely to make sure she hadn't imagined it, but then it bent significantly and made a sort of groaning creak - she definitely hadn't imagined it. "Oh crap!" she shrieked as the bar finally actually broke completely and before she could even try to come up with an idea it bent sharply and the knot slid right off. "The rope!" she shrieked again and Barrel made a desperate grab for it but didn't even come close - which was probably fortunate because if he had actually succeeded it would have no doubt pulled him right through the window as well. They both gasped in horror as the rope disappeared out the window and they looked down to watch Lock fall to his inevitable death… though at least if he ended up a bloody smear at the bottom of the pit they wouldn't have to smell or look at his corpse rotting because it was so far down. 

Lock vaguely heard his cohorts calling his name from above, but he was too busy focusing on the ground as it rapidly approached and he started to prepare for his dismount when suddenly all of the tension in the rope seemed to release and it went somewhat limp in his grip. Before he knew it he was hurtling way too fast straight towards the ground without any support, completely out of control. His eyes bugged out in alarm and he opened his mouth to scream but it all happened so fast that not even his relatively quick reflexes could save him and before he could even let go of the rope to try and land on his feet or do a roll he hit the ground just beyond the bridge, face first. He saw a stunning burst of white followed by black as his face made impact, and then his chest and stomach followed as he skidded forward several feet along the ground, plowing up the earth as he went and in the back of his mind he felt a weird sort of jarring sensation in his mouth. He finally came to a stop and lay there on his stomach with his face in the dirt for a moment trying to figure out if he was dead or not, and decided that he wasn't when he felt the need to breathe again. He rolled over onto his side and snorted the dirt out of his nose, then took a shaky breath through his mouth, which was throbbing with a dull sort of ache. Then he noticed that his nose was bleeding and there was something hard in his mouth that he assumed was a rock, so he spat it out and brought his hand up to pinch his nostrils closed. Just then Shock and Barrel came running over the rickety bridge towards him. 

"Holy crap, are you alright?!" Barrel said, rushing over to his fallen comrade with wide, anxious eyes. 

"I _told_ you this would happen!" Shock practically shouted, feeling equal parts relieved, angry and vindicated. "Why don't you ever listen to me, you dummy?!"

Lock sat up, still pinching his nose to stop the flow of blood and he looked up irritably at her. "If your sdupid knods didn'd sdink den id would have worked!" 

"It wasn't my knots, it was the window! You broke the stupid window, fatty!" she said shrilly, and Lock's heart sank a bit as he realized that he couldn't really blame this mishap on her.

Barrel started to giggle - now that it seemed Lock was pretty much okay he started thinking about how hilarious this whole situation was and how stupid Lock looked all covered in dirt, and he was glad that he hadn't tried the rope swing out first. "Shud up, Barrel!" Lock hissed, but that only made him burst out laughing and Shock started to laugh, too.

"That looked so cool!" Barrel gasped between laughs.

"Yeah, until the part where you ate dirt!" added Shock, starting to laugh even harder.

Lock decided to ignore her and instead focus on what Barrel said. "Yeah? How cool was id?" he asked excitedly. A bloody nose wasn't a big deal and was totally worth looking cool to his friends.

"Super cool! Was it fun?" said Barrel, now even more eager to get the swing set up properly so he could try it without ending up eating dirt himself.

"Before you totally face-planted into the ground?" Shock cackled. Seeing Lock a filthy, bloody mess now made all of his earlier insults null and void, in her opinion.

Lock ignored her again. "Yeah, id was dodally awesome! We godda fix id and do id some more!" But as he spoke he noticed something was not quite right with his mouth and he ran his tongue around searching for whatever was amiss… then his eyes widened when he felt an empty space where his leftmost top incisor should have been. He looked down at the ground and saw that the 'rock' he had spit out was actually his tooth and he suddenly felt extremely queasy. 

Shock noticed his change in mood. "What?" she asked, then followed his gaze and saw one of his pointy teeth laying in the dirt. "Is that your tooth?!?! You knocked out a tooth, you moron!" She started laughing even harder at the fact that now Lock was going to look like a gap-toothed idiot for the rest of his life and Barrel joined her. He didn't even know it was possible to knock a tooth out, and he was glad it was Lock and not himself who had discovered this.

“Gross!” he giggled, utterly delighted by the grossness and wondering what other body parts could come off of Lock without killing him.

Lock was torn between anger at his cohorts for laughing at him and horror at the idea of having a big dumb gap in his teeth like Shock – but at least he would only have one gap whereas all of her teeth were gappy. He picked it up off the ground with the hand that wasn’t pinching his nose shut and examined it closely. It did look kind of cool, with multiple long points that apparently kept it anchored in his jaw, but he still wished it was in his mouth instead of his palm.

“ _Now_ what are you gonna do?” Shock snickered as she picked the rope up off of the ground. “You want me to nail it back in for you with a hammer?”

Lock stood up and glared at her as he experimentally let go of his nose to test if it had stopped bleeding yet, and it appeared to have finished. “No thanks.” he sneered. “You’d probably hammer it right up my nose with your crappy, beady little eyes that can’t see anything.” and then it was Shock’s turn to glare. It was an exaggeration, her eyesight wasn’t actually bad, Lock’s vision was just abnormally sharp, a trait that he enjoyed lording over his companions.

“Shut up, butthead! At least my brain works, unlike yours!”

“Except the part that knows how to tie knots!”  
“I already told you, it was the window, not my knots!”

“Guys, let’s fix the swing and do it again!” said Barrel, grabbing the rope out of Shock’s hands before hurrying back across the bridge. He really didn’t care about Lock’s missing tooth, he just wanted to keep playing.

“What about my tooth!?” yelled Lock, starting to feel more and more unhappy about his situation.

“Who cares about your dumb old tooth?” Shock said meanly before she turned to call after Barrel: “What are you doing, stupid? We gotta tie it on an actual branch like I said earlier unless you want to lose a tooth, too, like gappy over here!”

“YOU’RE ONE TO TALK!” Lock screamed, now starting to get seriously upset.

“Shut up or I’ll knock some more of them out for you!” Shock said, clenching her fists and Lock was on the verge of tackling her but he didn’t want to drop his tooth he was holding tightly in his hand.

“I’m going home!” he yelled, and stomped across the bridge – shoving Barrel as he passed him – and went up to his room to pout. His cohorts didn’t go after him, they just took the rope to the forest and picked out a tree that looked good and Shock climbed up it and tied the rope tightly around a big, sturdy branch. Then she and Barrel spent several hours playing on the swing, taking turns and having a contest to see who could swing the highest. They went back to the treehouse when they were ready for lunch and Lock was still in his room, no doubt still pouting. Shock fixed up some quick sandwiches then went down the hall to pound on his door.

“Hey gappy, you want a sandwich? Or can you even eat with that big hole in your face?” she taunted him, and Barrel snort-laughed around his mouthful of sandwich. Lock had been lying on his stomach on his ratty old mattress, staring unhappily at his solitary tooth on the floor in front of him, but he glared at the door when Shock teased him. He considered ignoring her, but a sandwich really did sound good regardless of his broken mouth so he put his tooth in an empty mug that was sitting by his bed and got up to go eat some lunch.

“You should come play on the swing with us, it’s really fun!” said Barrel once they had finished eating.

“Yeah, especially now that you’re probably not gonna fall on your face again, unless you’re as klutzy as Barrel.” snickered Shock, and both of the boys frowned at her.

“It was a really good idea to make a swing.” Barrel continued. He knew that flattering Lock’s ego was a surefire way to make him feel better, and sure enough Lock brightened up a bit and decided to try it out. After all, there wasn’t anything he could do about his tooth now – the damage had already been done and sulking in his room all day was boring so he might as well go enjoy his brilliant idea. He followed his cohorts outside and they led him to the new-and-improved rope swing and they played on it until dark, yelling and laughing and trying to swing the highest and spinning each other around till they felt sick. It was the most fun they could remember having lately and as they finally walked back home completely exhausted and still giddy even Shock admitted that the rope swing was terrific, which made Lock feel so proud that he didn’t even gloat about it.

 

The next morning while they were eating breakfast, Shock turned to Lock and said between bites of scrambled egg, “I think I have an idea how to fix your tooth.”

He raised an eyebrow at her suspiciously, but he really hoped that she was being serious.

“Why don’t you bring it to Dr. Finkelstein and see if he can put it back in? He _made_ Sally, after all, so putting in a tooth should be super easy compared to that.”

“No way! He’s totally crazy, are you trying to get me killed? He’ll probably do some weird experiment on me and I’ll come back with two heads or something!”

“Even more reason for you to do it, maybe he’ll give you a head that actually has a brain in it!” she snapped. She had thought it was a pretty good idea so she was annoyed that he wasn’t thanking her profusely for thinking of it. “You got a better idea?” she demanded.

“I’ll just live with it, it’s no big deal! Better than letting that maniac poke around in my mouth!” he said, though deep down he hated the idea of staying gap-toothed now that a viable solution had been presented. He didn’t like her idea, but he didn’t have any other idea himself and he was sure that Shock was correct that putting in a tooth would be incredibly easy for the Doctor… but he’d meant what he’d said about him being crazy and plus they had pulled so many pranks on him over the years that Lock was almost positive that the Doctor would take the opportunity to do something awful to him as revenge. He would definitely have to think long and hard about the risks versus benefits of asking Dr. Finkelstein for help before going through with it.

“Well, my offer to hammer it back in your head still stands.” Shock said irritably.

“No thank you. I’d rather jump out the window again than let you anywhere near me with a hammer.” Lock sneered at her.

“I dunno, asking Dr. Finkelstein doesn’t sound like a bad idea.” said Barrel, eyeing Shock’s uneaten bit of scrambled eggs still on her plate.

“Nobody asked you, bigmouth.” grumbled Lock.

“At least his big mouth still has all its teeth!” Shock taunted him, and Lock went ahead and tackled her right off of her chair since he wasn’t holding anything he was afraid to drop this time. While they wrestled around on the floor Barrel took the opportunity to eat Shock’s remaining scrambled eggs, and then he drank the rest of Lock’s pumpkin juice while he was at it before sliding off of his chair and heading into the living room to watch the morning cartoons on T.V.

 

Lock lived with his missing tooth for the next week, still leery about going to the mad doctor for help. It wasn’t _too_ terrible, he decided, and he had even figured out how to spit through the gap – a fun trick that he frequently practiced on his cohorts until they teamed up to hold him down and twist his arm until he promised to stop… and they made sure to watch both of his hands while he promised so he couldn’t cross his fingers. On the eighth day after the rope swing incident Lock was finally sick of his missing tooth and was steeling himself to go see the doctor the next day, but while brushing his teeth that evening he noticed a hard little point coming out of his gums in the gap – and when he looked closer at it in the mirror it appeared that a new tooth was growing in. Feeling ecstatic at this new development and deeply relieved that he wouldn’t have to ask Dr. Finkelstein for help after all, he happily went to tell his cohorts and show it off to them. Shock was disappointed that she could no longer call him ‘gappy’, but Barrel was glad to know that it wouldn’t be permanent if he were ever unfortunate enough to knock out a tooth himself. Now that Lock knew that losing teeth was no problem, he had another brilliant idea: “Let’s build another rope swing out the window again! We’ll just tie it to something better this time!” But Barrel just looked at him like he was crazy and Shock rolled her eyes and threw a rotten apple at him that she’d been about to put in a trap for bait overnight. He dodged it and looked at them with half irritation and half disbelief. “Oh _come on_!” He held out his hands, palms to the ceiling and tried to convince them, but they wouldn’t budge. Finally he groaned and rolled his eyes and trudged back down the hallway. “You two are the most boringest borings that ever bored!” he shouted from the bathroom, and decided that he would just do it himself the next day whether they liked it or not. If Shock could tie good knots, then surely he could, too, right? How hard could it be?


	2. Lock Loses A Tooth - Swimming

“It’s too hot!” Barrel whined, laying flat on his back in the middle of the living room floor with his shirt pulled up to expose his pudgy little belly, trying to help cool himself off a bit. Lock was draped across the back of the sofa on his stomach and he was so limp that it looked like his arms, legs and tail were melting all down the sides of it. It was the hottest summer day that any of them could remember, the orange sun blindingly bright and mercilessly scorching the entire town and hinterlands and he was absolutely miserable. He always ran hot so he felt fine in cooler months, but now he was so hot and sweaty that he could hardly move or do anything – but he was so miserable that he didn’t even care how boring it was not doing anything.

“I feel fine!” Shock said cheerfully from where she was sitting cross-legged on the floor in her light purple summer dress and reading a large, musty book about human anatomy and how various poisons affected it. She always ran a bit on the cold side so she preferred the warmer weather.

“That’s because you’re a freak.” Lock mumbled against the sofa, and Shock gave him a dirty look but went back to her reading. She had stolen the book from the town library because it looked like it might be kind of interesting, and it didn’t disappoint. It had lots of large, full color illustrations of all the different body systems and she was fascinated by the diagrams of all the veins, arteries, nerves and organs and all the different terrible things that could happen to them. Then she flipped to a page that compared male to female bodies and she felt a little weird looking at the differences between the two. Is that what she was going to look like when she grew up? All curvy and soft and more delicate than the boys? Were they going to get taller and stronger than her but stay pretty close to the same shape they were now but with more muscles? She glanced down at herself and then glanced at the boys. Right now they were all basically shaped the same, with the exception of her being a bit taller and thinner and she preferred it that way. She didn’t _want_ to get all soft and curvy and delicate, she wanted to stay just as tough as Lock and Barrel. But the truth was that she was apparently _already_ different despite being pretty much the same shape, and she had learned this from a very early age.

When she wasn’t even four years old yet the older witches told her to stop running around shirtless like the boys, and she had cried and complained and pouted and asked over and over why. _Why_ did she have to cover up but they didn’t? _‘That’s just the way it is.’_ they had told her, and when she tried to disobey she was immediately punished and forced to put on a shirt or dress. When they went to live with Oogie it was the same: _‘Ladies don’t show off the goods, it makes ‘em cheap. And lord knows I don’t mind cheap women, but not for my little henchman.’_ She didn’t understand what he meant by _‘cheap women’_ but she didn’t dare disobey the Boogie Man so she kept her chest covered up. Oogie always had women coming around – usually never the same ones twice, and the children were strictly forbidden to come down whenever he was _‘entertaining his guests’_ , as he put it, but Shock figured he must know a lot about women. He knew a lot about everything. Before she could spend any more time worrying about her future body she looked up and saw a gigantic cockroach sitting in the mouth of the chute of Oogie’s shrine.

“We gotta go see Oogie Boogie!” she told her cohorts, who were so zoned out in their own overheated misery that they hadn’t noticed. Lock groaned from atop the sofa back – he really didn’t want to go anywhere but he had no choice. Barrel sighed and got up off of the floor and his shirt dropped back down to cover his tummy as he trudged towards the elevator cage. Shock slammed the book shut and followed him, and Lock slithered off of the sofa and dragged himself after them. As they descended down into the pit Shock noticed that the back of Lock’s shirt seemed to be damp. “You’re all sweaty! Gross!” she said, backing as far away from him as she could.

“What do you expect? It’s like a billion degrees out!” he grumbled. If he hadn’t been feeling so sluggish he would have tried to wipe his sweaty shirt all over her just to gross her out more. They entered the lair with their heads bowed and Lock and Barrel were pleased to discover that the lair was actually a great deal cooler than their treehouse, no doubt thanks to being so far underground, and they hoped that he would invite them to stay for awhile.

“Hey there kiddos, how ‘bout that weather, huh? You look like you’re tryin’ to melt, devil boy!” Oogie chuckled, and it took all of Lock’s energy to grin weakly.

“I _feel_ like I’m melting.” he answered, and Oogie chuckled again.

“Well then, lucky for you ol’ Oogie’s got just the thing.” He leaned over and reached behind his chair and then tossed something red at Lock, something purple at Shock and something black at Barrel. The wadded up red thing hit Lock in the chest and Barrel’s hit him in the face, but Shock managed to catch hers.

“What are they?” she asked as she inspected the gift. It was a sort of slippery fabric and when she held it up it looked like something to wear, but it had no sleeves and no skirt, and not even any pants. It was a dark purple with little black frills around the shoulder straps and at the top of each leg hole. Was she actually supposed to _wear_ this thing? She looked to see what the boys had received, but Barrel was just holding up a plain old pair of black shorts and Lock had red ones. They did look a little bit longer than normal shorts and also a more slippery-looking fabric, but not as slippery as hers. Why was hers so different? Then it dawned on her: she had to keep her chest covered up. She frowned to herself but was careful not to look unhappy with her present in front of Oogie.

“Swimsuits, you knuckleheads! Kids like you should be out flappin’ around in the water on a day like this. Put those on and go play in the lake, that’ll help you feel better. Don’t say ol’ Oogie never did nothin’ for ya’!”

“Are you coming swimming, too?” asked Barrel, but Oogie gave him an annoyed look.

“And drown all my bugs? I swear you’re the dumbest ghoul I ever met, little man.” and Barrel looked at the ground, embarrassed about asking such a dumb question. The children thanked the Boogie Man for his gifts and backed out of the lair with their heads bowed, then hurried back upstairs to change into their new swimsuits. Lock and Barrel had perked up considerably at the idea of going in the nice, cool lake, and Lock couldn’t believe that he hadn’t thought of it himself. Once they were all changed and had each grabbed a towel they met at the elevator again.

“ _That’s_ what your swimsuit looks like?” Lock snickered as they descended, and Barrel snickered with him. “Why does it look so stupid?”

Shock was furious. “Because girls are different than stupid old boys!” she hissed.

“How?” asked Barrel.

“We just are! We can’t go walking around with no shirt on!” She hated that she was repeating what all the grown-ups had told her, but she didn’t know what else to say.

“Why not? What’s so special about your chest?” asked Lock. He’d never really thought about it before, but it was true that he’d never seen her without some sort of top on, at least not that he could remember.

“It just is!” she gritted through her teeth. Today was suddenly turning into the worst day ever. “Boys aren’t supposed to look at it!”

Lock smirked, “What boy would want to look at you anyway?” He said it for two reasons: the first was just to be mean, but the second was because he genuinely didn’t understand what the big deal was. She seemed to look pretty much like him and Barrel, as far as he could tell.

Shock was so mad now that she didn’t even know what to say, so she turned to her tried-and-true solution: throttling him. She grabbed his throat and started shaking and he grabbed onto her wrists to try and stop her. Barrel pressed himself against the cage as far away from them as he could get, but it was difficult because there wasn’t a lot of room. When the elevator got to the bridge Barrel threw open the door and ran out. “C’mon you guys!” he hollered and only then did Shock let go of Lock’s neck and turn on her heel to stomp away from him after Barrel. Lock followed, rubbing his neck and swishing his tail angrily.

They walked all the way to the lake and found that they weren’t alone: many other townspeople were also enjoying the murky water and they all gave the Boogie Boys nasty looks as they passed but the trio didn’t care, they just marched proudly past – kicking sand at anyone who happened to be close enough – until they found their own little corner of lake that no one was using, probably because the shore there was mostly a bunch of rocks and boulders. Shock dipped a single toe in to check the temperature, but Lock and Barrel both scrambled up on top of a large boulder overlooking the water and as soon as Lock got to his feet again he leapt off of the boulder and actually did a fairly impressive swan dive into the lake. Barrel grinned in excitement as Lock’s head popped back up above the water with a big smile on his face. “It feels great!” he yelled, so Barrel took a few steps back and then ran forward and launched himself off of the boulder as far as he could and belly-flopped hard onto the water with a loud _‘smack’_ before sinking slowly beneath the surface. Lock and Shock both started laughing hysterically and Barrel resurfaced wincing and looking incredibly uncomfortable.

“I give that a 10 out of 10, fatty!” chortled Lock, and Barrel frowned and splashed a bunch of water at him, which started a full-on splashing fight. Meanwhile Shock had waded into the water up to her knees, trying to slowly acclimate to the cool water. It did feel kind of nice, but getting in all at once was just too cold. Unfortunately for her the boys stopped their splashing fight and Lock yelled at her:

“Why are you taking forever to get in?”

"Because it’s cold and I don’t want to jump in without looking and hit my head on a rock underwater, unlike you two dummies!”

“I guess it probably _is_ too cold for wimpy girls like you.” Lock said slyly, hoping to get an angry reaction out of her, and he definitely did.

“No it’s not!” she said defensively.

“Oh yeah? Prove it!” smirked Lock, and he immediately swam over and started splashing her, kicking the water up so high with both of his feet that it soaked her from head to toe.

“Stop it!” she shrieked, but he was too far away for her to kick him and soon Barrel had paddled up beside Lock and started splashing her, too. Within seconds she was already so wet from their splashes that she gave up on trying to acclimate slowly so she stomped into the lake as fast as she could with a murderous expression on her face, fully prepared to drown each of her cohorts one after the other – starting with Lock, but he quickly turned around and swam away like a frog. Barrel tried to doggy-paddle away from her as fast as he could but he wasn’t fast enough and she grabbed him and dunked his head under the water and held him there. He flailed and splashed around until he finally managed to kick one stumpy foot backwards and hit her in the stomach and she let go with a wheeze and he bobbed to the surface spluttering and spitting out water.

Lock was quite a ways away by now, laughing at his cohorts and feeling cocky about how great of a swimmer he was compared to them… but it turned out he was congratulating himself prematurely because as soon as Shock recovered her breath she narrowed her eyes on him instead of Barrel and before he knew it she started swimming towards him much faster than he expected. Her slender body, long legs and aerodynamic swimsuit helped her slice through the water like an eel and Lock’s frog-kick was no match for it, and to his horror she caught up to him and grabbed him by the legs to pull him back and under. They thrashed around underwater, Shock clinging onto him like an alligator trying to drown its prey and he kicked wildly and tried to punch her but it was hard to move quickly underwater. Finally they both ran out of air and took their fight to the surface, gasping for breath and continuing to pummel each other. By now Barrel had paddled over and started splashing both of them while giggling and treading water, as he was just barely too short to touch the bottom. When Lock and Shock noticed he was splashing them they stopped their fighting and started splashing him back and soon a three-way splashing and dunking fight ensued until Barrel got too tired to keep treading water and started floating on his back instead. The others thought that looked kind of cool so they tried it too, plus they were tired so it was good to just float around and catch their breaths for a moment.

They played in the water for hours, seeing who could swim the fastest (Shock), who could spit water the farthest (Lock) and who could hold their breath the longest (Barrel). Eventually Shock started to feel cold so without a word she began swimming back towards shore to sit in the sun for a bit and warm up.

“Where are you going?” Barrel called after her, and Lock spit water at the side of his face while he wasn’t looking, prompting Barrel to spit water at him right back.

“What’s it to you, shrimp?” she called back, spreading out her towel on a big boulder and sitting on it. The boulder felt nice and warm against her legs and backside from soaking up the sun all day.

“I knew it, the water’s too cold for you girls and your special chests!” Lock teased her, even though she had just spent the last several hours in the water just fine.

“Shut up, idiot! It has nothing to do with being a girl! _You’re_ the freak, wanting to be in cold water all day!”

“Whatever you say, wimp!” he laughed, then dunked Barrel without warning. The boys splashed around for awhile longer and Shock started to get bored, so she picked up a pebble and threw it at them. It plunked into the water right next to Lock. “What the?” he startled, then she threw another one and hit him in the shoulder. “Hey!” he shouted, and started swimming towards her. “What’d you think you’re doing, you jerk!” She giggled and threw another rock at him, but didn’t get very close this time. “Ha! You call that a throw?” he snickered, and felt around on the lake floor with his toes for a pebble to throw back at her. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you can’t hit anything since you can’t see worth a crap and you throw like a girl!” he teased, and that was it. That was the final straw. He had teased her about her swimsuit, he had teased her about having to keep covered up even though it was just because the dumb grownups told her she had to, he had teased her about being too cold in the water, and now he was teasing her about her aim and throwing ability. She picked up the biggest rock she could hold in one hand, clenching it tightly and determined to teach that rotten little devil a lesson.

Lock looked away from her only for a second as he reached down to grab the pebble he’d felt on the bottom of the lake and she chucked her rock at him as hard as she could the second he looked back up. Her aim was true this time and it clocked him right in the face and he fell over backwards into the water with a splash. Barrel started laughing and a smug, satisfied smirk spread across Shock’s face.

“Is that a good enough throw for you?” she taunted as Lock finally resurfaced, spluttering and coughing behind both of his hands that he had pressed firmly against his mouth.

“I think you knocked my teeth out!” he shouted, looking absolutely livid.

“Good!” Shock yelled, watching with a grim sort of satisfaction as Lock moved his hands away from his face and looked at them, no doubt checking for blood and teeth. Sure enough, she had knocked out three of his front top ones and one of the bottom ones. Barrel paddled up beside him and Lock bared what was left of his teeth and asked:

“How bad is it?” and he knew it was bad when his younger cohort busted up laughing.

“Oh man, you look soooo stupid!” Barrel said gleefully, but his glee was short-lived because Lock punched him right in the mouth – but fortunately not hard enough to knock any teeth loose. If Lock didn’t know that they would grow back he would have panicked because he only had two of the missing four in his hand… the others were lost on the bottom of the lake somewhere. But now he was just angry and he gave Shock his deadliest glare and started swimming furiously towards her, and she quickly started looking for another rock to throw. He had just barely gotten to shore with a rock of his own and she had just pulled her arm back to let loose a second rock when a strong, long-fingered, bony hand gripped her wrist tightly and she looked up into the face of Jack Skellington. Lock quickly dropped his rock into the water and tried to look innocent, and Barrel stayed where he was… though he couldn’t help but giggle a little because he’d never seen Jack just wearing swimming shorts before and he thought it looked really funny.

“What’s going on, you three?” Jack said sternly, though he knew perfectly well what was going on. He had seen Shock throw the rock at Lock’s face and knock him over into the water and while he knew that the children played rough with one another, that was really going too far.

“We’re just playing, Jack.” Shock said in her falsely-sweet tone of voice.

“Yeah, just having fun, Jack.” said Lock, being careful to keep his lips as closed as possible, but he was unable to keep from lisping terribly.

Jack raised a concerned brow ridge. “Are you alright, Lock? It looked like you just took a pretty hard hit to the face.”

“It wasn’t that hard because she throws like a wimpy girl.” Lock smirked and Shock tried to chuck the rock she was holding at him but Jack held her arm in place.

“Drop it, please, Shock.” Jack said sternly, and she begrudgingly obeyed. “And that is not a nice thing to say, Lock. I’d like you to apologize, please.”

“Why do _I_ have to apologize? She’s the one who threw a rock at me!”

“You deserved it!” Shock yelled, and despite his disapproval of the way she had handled the situation, Jack had to acknowledge to himself that she was probably right about that.

“Just the same, you need to apologize, young man. As do you, young lady.”

Shock and Lock both wrinkled their noses at being called a _‘young man’_ and _‘young lady’_ , then Shock said, “He should apologize first, he started it!”

“Nuh-uh, she did!”

Jack sighed. “Lock, you apologize first.”

“Why!?” Lock demanded.

“Because we’re going to go alphabetically, and your name is first.”

“That’s not fair!” he pouted, but then Jack looked at him so sternly that he decided he’d better relent. “FINE. Sorry for calling you a wimpy girl.” he grumbled.

“Sorry for knocking out your dumb teeth.” she muttered, but when Jack raised a disapproving brow at her she corrected herself. “Sorry for knocking out your teeth.”

“Did you really lose some teeth?” asked Jack with concern, but then Barrel piped up:

“It’s okay, they just grow back!” 

“Really?” asked Jack. He’d known plenty of devils over the centuries, but never a tiny, extremely rowdy one who had knocked out teeth before. 

“Yeah, he lost one when he fell off the rope swing and ate dirt!” Barrel giggled, and Lock shot him a nasty look.

Jack had to work hard to suppress a grin and keep his voice even to ask, “Are you certain you’re alright?”

Lock nodded.

“Very well then. Please play nicer with each other from now on, understand?” Jack knew that was the most pointless request ever but he had to at least make an attempt at teaching them slightly better behavior – he didn’t want to end up with a dead trick-or-treater one of these days if he could help it.

“We will, Jack.” they answered together – and they also all had their fingers crossed where Jack couldn’t see.

Now that Jack had completely ruined the mood the kids gave up on fighting and Barrel and Lock spread their towels out next to Shock on the boulders as well. Lock and Shock glared at one another out of the corner of their eyes for awhile until Barrel started tossing pebbles into the lake. So then a rock throwing and skipping contest began and when Lock threw his rock the farthest he grinned in triumph, but then quickly shut his mouth to hide the enormous gap… but it was too late, Shock had noticed it. To her surprise, she actually felt a tiny bit bad about it – it looked funny, but it also looked pretty terrible, too. She shifted uncomfortably on the boulder and then asked:

“Does it hurt really bad?”

The sincerity in her voice was unusual so Lock paused for a moment, not quite sure how to respond. Normally he would have said something sarcastic, but it actually seemed like maybe she was being serious so he answered, “It’s not too bad. Don’t worry about it.” Then he added, “It was a pretty good throw!” Shock giggled a bit and he grinned, then said boastfully, “Not as good as my throws, though!” He stood up and picked up a rock and chucked it as hard as he could into the water, and Barrel and Shock stood up as well and started trying to prove him wrong.


	3. Lock Loses a Tooth - Piñata

“What is it?” Barrel asked excitedly, looking with great interest at the very large tissue-paper covered papier mache Jack-o-Lantern that Oogie Boogie handed his two older cohorts. None of them knew what papier mache was – to them it just looked like a weird, somewhat ugly pumpkin sculpture, but if it was from Oogie then it had to be something fun. Lock started shaking it and Shock joined him, and they heard and felt what seemed like lots of little things rattling around inside and got even more curious about this strange gift.

“You kids never seen a piñata before? Well now, that’s a tragedy because it’s right up your alley. Ol’ Oogie’ll show you.” He lumbered over to the crank that controlled the rope that he usually used to hang up his victims and turned it until the sharp hook at the end of it was down to the children’s level. “Now hang it up there.” They saw the little loop on top of the Jack-o-Lantern and hooked it onto the torture rope, then Oogie turned the crank to raise it up about two feet above the children’s heads. “Stay put, you three, I’ll be right back. And don’t you touch it, now!” He left the room and the kids were practically dying of curiosity and they began postulating on what it could possibly be.

“Maybe it’ll explode!” said Lock excitedly.

“Maybe it’s full of nails and glass and bones and stuff that’ll fly through the air and stab everyone when it explodes!” added Shock with an evil grin.

“Maybe it’s full of candy!” said Barrel, practically bouncing up and down in anticipation and hoping his theory was correct.

“Why would it be full of candy? Oogie always keeps candy for us in the trunk over there, moron!” sneered Shock.

“So what? It could still be candy…” Barrel mumbled, feeling a little bit crestfallen at her dismissal of his idea.

“Maybe there’s a bunch of those really huge bugs with the gigantic pinchy teeth inside and we can put them in the Mayor’s pants!” grinned Lock, imagining how funny that would be, and his cohorts grinned wickedly as well. Just then Oogie returned to the room holding a stick and a strip of fabric. The children felt extremely anxious at the sight of the stick because the Boogie Man had been known to spank them with it, but they couldn’t imagine what they possibly could have done to upset him recently… was he really going to hit them because they didn’t know what a piñata was? But happily he handed the stick to Lock and the strip of fabric to Shock and Barrel wondered why he was the only one who hadn’t gotten to hold anything, but then he felt better when Oogie said:

“Now, use that to blindfold your pal there, princess.”

Shock grinned evilly and advanced on Lock, who normally would have protested letting her blindfold him – but since it was on Oogie’s orders he had no choice but to go along with it. He didn’t like not being able to see and he gripped the stick anxiously, preparing to swing it at her if she tried anything funny. While she tied the blindfold tightly around his head and waved her hands in front of his face to make sure he couldn’t see, Oogie returned to the rope crank across the room, pointed to Barrel and then said:

“Now turn him around five times.” Barrel grinned, happy to be participating now, and grabbed Lock by his shoulders and guided him in a little circle five times, counting the numbers out loud. Lock stumbled a bit as he turned because being unable to see was quite disorienting and when Barrel let go of him he had no idea which way he was facing. All three of them were completely confused by now because it felt more like one of the weird rituals the witches did on the solstices under the full moon or something, and not much like the usual games that Oogie taught them. They wondered if they would be summoning some sort of evil spirit – which wouldn’t be as fun as it exploding but would still be pretty cool, especially if it was an evil spirit that they could boss around. Then Oogie said, “Alrighty now Lock, you’re gonna swing that stick and try to beat up that pumpkin just as hard as you can, understand? And you two better stay out of his way!”

Lock was immediately super-excited because beating the crap out of something (or someone) was one of his very favorite things to do. It was a little odd that he couldn’t see, but he figured that the last time he looked he was right in front of the pumpkin so he swung the stick as hard as he could in that direction and hoped for the best… but unbeknownst to him, right when he started to swing Oogie turned the crank and the piñata raised up higher than the stick and Lock spun all the way around and nearly fell over as he hit nothing but air. Shock and Barrel laughed raucously because he looked so ridiculous, and Oogie chuckled as well before cranking the pumpkin back down. “You get two more tries, devil boy!” he said, and before he even finished the sentence Lock made another furious swing but he wasn’t even facing the right direction anymore and this attempt was even more futile than the first.

“It’s behind you, stupid!” cackled Shock, and Lock bared his teeth angrily and turned around and swung with all his might… and once again the stick whiffed through the air and this time he actually did fall over, landing right on his backside and knocking his elbow hard against the floor. Shock and Barrel were practically rolling on the ground with laughter and even Oogie was guffawing loudly. Lock was half embarrassed and half furious, but as he got unsteadily to his feet Oogie said:

“Nice try, little buddy, but now it’s someone else’s turn. Let’s see if you can do better, princess.” Lock ripped the blindfold off and shoved it and the stick roughly into Shock’s hands.

“Yeah Shock, let’s see you try it!” he sneered, looking forward to seeing her fall on her backside.

“Watch and learn, _‘devil boy’_.” she mocked, co-opting Oogie’s nickname for him. Secretly she was a little concerned, but she also had a strategy that she thought would surely bring her more success than Lock and his technique of just swinging wildly and randomly into the air. She tied on her own blindfold and Lock waved his hands in front of her face to make sure she didn’t cheat, and when she didn’t flinch he was satisfied and took a few steps away as she held the stick out in front of her.

“Spin her around now!” called Oogie, and Lock grabbed her roughly and turned her around five times so fast that she nearly fell over just from that.

“Take it easy, you jerk, or I’m gonna shove this right up your nose!” she brandished the stick threateningly.

Barrel giggled and Oogie chuckled and said, “I’d pay to see that! But first, practice on this Jack-o-Lantern here.” Shock very carefully held the stick out in front of her and started experimentally poking it around in the air, searching for the piñata.

“What are you doing?” asked Barrel.

“Yeah, you’re supposed to hit it, dummy, not give it a little tap!” said Lock.

“Shut up!” she growled, and then smirked when the stick bumped against her target. She brought the stick back and wiggled it side-to-side slightly like a baseball bat then swung as hard as she could towards where she had felt the piñata, confident that she would make contact… but she really should have known better because Oogie turned the crank to raise it out of her reach just like he’d done to Lock and she hit nothing but air and just about fell over. Everyone laughed except her, and Lock got right up in her blindfolded face as close as he could and barked out a loud _“HA!”_ then quickly ducked as she swung the stick in the direction of his voice.

“Two more tries!” called Oogie, and he sounded extremely amused. Meanwhile Lock had thought of a way to make this game even more fun: instead of just standing there waiting for her to swing the stick, he decided to try running past her and dodging her swings. “Playing a dangerous game there, devil boy!” Oogie laughed as Lock narrowly avoided getting hit in the head by Shock’s second swing, but dangerous games were his favorite so he was undeterred. Barrel laughed more and hoped that Lock would get hit, and then he hoped that Lock would get hit _and_ Shock would fall down at the same time because that would be twice as funny. Shock tried her strategy of feeling around for the piñata for both of her remaining attempts but she was just as unsuccessful as Lock had been – though at least she managed to stay on her feet.

“Alright, you’re up, little man!” laughed Oogie, and Shock tore off her blindfold and tied it around Barrel’s head before handing him the stick and spinning him around five times. “Give it your best shot, kiddo!” Oogie said, and Barrel grinned excitedly and swung the stick as hard as he could. He was less uptight about hitting the target than his cohorts were because he’d been paying attention and he was pretty sure that Oogie was going to move the piñata on him, too, and he was right. His next two tries were just as bad, especially because he stumbled further and further away from the target with each swing until he wouldn’t have hit it even if Oogie wasn’t moving it. But he didn’t really care because just swinging the stick around was fun on its own.

“Alright, Lock, you’re up again!” said Oogie, and after Barrel’s terrible performance Lock was feeling better about himself. Surely he would be more successful this time! Barrel blindfolded him and turned him around, and after two unsuccessful swings Lock was starting to get a little frustrated… but then on his third swing Oogie didn’t move the piñata and Lock actually landed a hit.

“Bullseye!” he shouted triumphantly and gave a little leap of excitement. He prepared to take another swing but Shock smacked him in the back of the head before he could do it.

“You only get three tries, it’s my turn now!” she yelled in his ear and grabbed the stick out of his hands.

“Beat that, _‘princess’_!” Lock gloated as he took off his blindfold, and Shock glared at him because she hated that nickname – though she would never dare tell that to Oogie Boogie. She returned to her former strategy of feeling around for the target, hoping that Oogie would do the same thing and not move the piñata on her third try, and to her surprise and glee she hit it on her second swing as well as her third.

“I win!” she shouted, but Lock wasn’t paying attention to her – he was distracted because the piñata had cracked open a little on her final hit and he and Barrel were trying to see what was inside… but the crack wasn’t quite big enough to tell.

“Okay, it’s my turn, gimme the stick!” said Barrel, reaching up to take off her blindfold for her. He was so excited to try again that he could hardly stand it and once he was all situated and turned around he immediately swung the stick without even attempting to aim, and to his utter delight he hit it on his first try.

“Nice one, little man!” hollered Oogie Boogie, who had let go of the crank entirely and was just sitting back and watching the show now. He knew that the kids would get frustrated if he strung them along for too long… and while he enjoyed messing with them a bit, he decided to take pity on them this time.

“Wow, way to go, midget!” grinned Lock, standing back up straight after running beneath Barrel’s swing again. He didn’t even care that Barrel was doing better than he had, he just wanted to see what was inside. Shock was looking eagerly at the crack in the piñata as close as she could without getting in the way… she wasn’t a moron like Lock so there was no way she was going to try dodging the stick like that. Barrel swung again and landed another hit, and the pumpkin cracked open even further and something flat, round and gold fell out of it that looked suspiciously like a chocolate coin and she wondered if perhaps Barrel’s theory had been correct after all. It didn’t look like Barrel could grin any wider and he swung the stick one final time with all his might and hit the piñata hard enough that it split open completely. Shock and Lock watched in transcendent anticipation as it exploded and rained candy down everywhere and while Shock quickly knelt to start collecting as much of it as she could, Lock didn’t even get the chance to join her before Barrel blindly swung the stick back again and hit him squarely in the mouth.

“OW!!!” Lock yelled, bringing both hands to his mouth as he felt that unpleasant – and unfortunately increasingly familiar – sensation of a tooth coming loose. But Barrel didn’t care, he had heard the sound of whatever was in the piñata landing on the floor and he tore off his blindfold, threw the stick aside and whooped excitedly at the sight of candy all over the place. Ignoring Lock completely, he scrambled forward onto the floor and started shoving as much of the candy into his pockets as possible, fighting with Shock over the best pieces while Oogie laughed from his seat. Lock spat out his dislodged tooth and growled as he felt his lips start to swell up, then he kicked Barrel right in the backside, knocking him face-first onto the floor in the middle of all the candy. Barrel didn’t even react, he just started picking some of the candy up with his mouth while he kept shoving more of it into his pockets and even down his pants.

“Are you putting it in your underwear?!?” laughed Shock. “That’s so gross!” She threw a lollipop at his head but Barrel just grinned and shoved that down his pants as well.

“What? My pockets are full!” he said with a big smile, and Oogie laughed even harder. Lock was extremely irritated that no one seemed to care about his injury, but then he decided that he didn’t really care all that much, either. He’d already lost enough teeth by now to know that this one would grow back too, and his cohorts were getting all the good candy while he was just standing around being mad so he dropped to the floor as well and started collecting as much of it as he could grab, too. There was still candy on the ground even after they had filled their pockets to the brim, as well as Shock’s hat and Barrel’s underwear, so they just sat there and started eating the remaining candy right off of the floor.

“Well kids, what’d you think of my little present, hmm?” Oogie chortled.

“Thank you, Mr. Oogie Boogie!” they all said in unison with their mouths full.

“Piñatas are great!” muffled Barrel through his absolutely enormous mouthful of nougat bar, and his cohorts nodded in agreement. Lock’s tooth lay on the floor completely forgotten, and his anger was equally forgotten despite his throbbing lips. It was just impossible to stay mad when there was all this candy for the taking and while he still sort of wished that the piñata would have been something explosive or otherwise dangerous, candy was definitely an acceptable alternative and he really hoped that the Boogie Man would bring them another one someday.


	4. Ethan's Bad Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads-up, this one is much more angsty and dark than the preceding chapters. But I think it explains some of why the other children in Halloween Town are so afraid of the Boogie Boys, as well as exploring the trio’s deeper emotions a bit more.

“Well, now what should we do?” asked Lock, swinging his feet back and forth over the side of the low, stone wall in the alley where he and his cohorts were sitting. They had just finished spray-painting offensive drawings all over that same wall until they had run out of paint and threw the empty cans into the weeds.

“I dunno…” said Shock, plucking at a shriveled-up blade of dead grass and her cohorts glanced at her, a little worried. Was she still feeling down about what had happened that morning? Lock and Barrel had really hoped that committing a little vandalism would cheer her up, and while she seemed a tiny bit better she was still acting pretty glum.

That morning she had found a really interesting bug in a book she had stolen and wanted to show Oogie Boogie, tell him everything she’d learned about it and ask if he had one of them squirming around beneath his skin. But she had misjudged his mood and instead of being interested in her discovery and impressed by her knowledge he had snatched the book out of her hand and hit her with it, calling her an obnoxious little know-it-all and giving her a black eye with the corner of the book. _‘As if some little witch like you could teach the Boogie Man anything about bugs! Ha!’_ he had sneered, and she supposed he was right, so she apologized and hurried back upstairs to ice her battered eye. Lock and Barrel agreed with Oogie that she could be an obnoxious know-it-all, but she still didn’t deserve getting hit for it, at least not by anyone besides themselves.

 

Suddenly Ethan the corpse kid turned around the corner. He didn’t see them right away because he was completely engrossed in his brand new comic book, and by the time he did notice them he was so far down the alley that it was too late for him to make an escape. He glanced up and instantly froze, and he couldn’t help but look right at Shock’s nasty-looking black eye. He had no way of knowing that it was Oogie Boogie who had hurt her, but she still felt exposed and hated the thought that anyone _might_ know or guess how she got it, so it was time to assert their social dominance. As if he’d read her mind, Lock turned to the corpse kid and sneered:

“What are you looking at, stinky?”

“He’s not looking at anything, his stupid eyes are sewn shut!” Shock sneered as well, and Barrel giggled, wishing he had something clever to add.

“Good point,” Lock said, hopping down off of the wall and stalking menacingly towards Ethan. “So how _do_ you get around, huh, ugly?”

Shock hopped down off of the wall as well, and Barrel followed her. “Yeah,” she said, “Do you use echolocation like a bat or something?” Lock and Barrel didn’t have the faintest clue what she was talking about, but it was always nice when Shock said something that sounded really smart to their enemies, even if they didn’t like it when she did it to _them_.

“I can see…” Ethan mumbled, backing away a little bit.

“How?” asked Barrel, trying to sound tough.

“I dunno, I just can.”

“Well, I bet you can’t see very good.” taunted Lock, advancing towards the corpse kid even more menacingly, flicking his tail back and forth.

“We should help him out.” Shock said in her fake-sweet voice, and somehow she sounded even more threatening than her cohort’s openly aggressive tone.

“That’s an excellent idea, Shock.” Lock said, twisting his lips up into his crooked, wicked smile.

“Well, Jack _is_ always telling us to be nice.” she smirked. “So let’s do what he says.” Then all three of the Boogie Boys leapt forward in one coordinated attack, almost as if they were reading one another’s minds. They were so well practiced at working together that they practically _could_ read one another’s minds by now, and Ethan didn’t stand a chance. Lock tackled him in the middle, Barrel went for his legs, and Shock hurried around to grab his arms and in only a second they had him pinned down with one of his pudgy, dimpled arms stuck between his back and the ground.

“Ow, help!” he cried and tried to wiggle free, but Barrel was sitting on his legs, Lock had one knee pressed hard into his chest, and Shock had his other arm – and when he tried to struggle she twisted it sharply and he yelped in pain. “Help!” he cried again, but then Lock slapped a hand over his mouth.

“You’re lucky Shock over here knows how to sew good.” he said, looking down at their victim with his yellow eyes glinting. “Because she’s just as good at taking stitches out as she is at putting them in.”

“Why thank you, Lock.” she said in her fake-sweet voice as she pulled out the small knife that she always carried with her. “But you seem to be in the way. Let’s switch places, you can be my surgery assistant.” He nodded and they swiftly and smoothly changed places so that Shock was sitting on Ethan’s chest and Lock had his arm. Ethan was about to cry out for help again, but he shut his mouth when he saw the knife.

“Hold still.” she said, and her voice wasn’t sweet anymore.

“Or I’ll rip your ear right off.” Lock growled, grabbing Ethan’s ear with his free hand and twisting it, and the corpse kid whimpered in pain and trembled a little.

Shock continued: “You move and I might accidentally stab you right in your rotten brain, and you probably won’t like that. And I won’t like it either, because I don’t want to get my knife all gross from your nasty corpse brains – if you even have any.” A rush of power flooded through her, helping to drown out how powerless Oogie had made her feel that morning, and it felt good.

Barrel snickered and bounced a little bit on Ethan’s knees, hoping that it hurt him, and then he tried to peer around Shock to see what she was doing. Lock watched eagerly as she brought her knife down right next to Ethan’s left eye, and helpless corpse kid lay there paralyzed with terror. She ever-so-delicately slipped the knife beneath the threads holding his eyelids closed and cut them, then roughly pulled the stitches right out. She was about to throw them aside when Lock said:

“Wait, give them to me!” Shock had no idea why he’d want to keep nasty corpse eyelid threads, but she dropped them in his open hand anyway before looking back down at their victim.

“Ew, look at his eye!” she squealed delightedly, and Lock leaned over to see that Ethan’s lids had retracted to reveal his cloudy, somewhat flattened eyeball.

“Nice!” he said evilly.

“I wanna see!” hollered Barrel, so Shock tilted to the side and Lock forced Ethan’s head up by his ear so that their littlest cohort could look, too. “Gross!” giggled Barrel, absolutely delighting in the grossness.

“Don’t stop now, doctor Shock, we haven’t finished helping him yet! He can’t walk around with only one eye open, how’s he supposed to see good?” Lock snickered.

“You’re right, doctor Lock.” she snickered back. “It would be rude not to finish the surgery.” And with that she brought her knife down to slice open Ethan’s right eyelid threads. A few tears were leaking out of his milky eyes now, not because it hurt, but because it was so humiliating and he worried what his parents would say when he came home with no stitches. How was he going to explain what happened without telling on the Boogie Boys? If they found out he tattled they would surely do something even worse to him next time. Shock handed her cohort the remaining threads and leaned back to appraise her work. “There you go, that looks better. No need to thank us.” she said sweetly, but the mean streak beneath the sweetness was impossible to miss.

Lock grinned at her and added, “But you’re welcome anyway.” He looked down at the corpse kid – who was now crying openly – and said smoothly, “Now, it’s important that you don’t litter, you know how Jack likes Halloween Town nice and tidy. So you’d better clean these up.” He held the stitches right over Ethan’s face and then said in an absolutely merciless tone, “Eat them.” Shock raised her eyebrows, impressed by his meanness and creativity, and Barrel leaned as far to the side as he could without falling off of Ethan’s knees, trying to watch.

“Please don’t make me…” Ethan whimpered, but his captors were unmoved.

“Do it!” Lock hissed, and he pushed his handful of stitches against Ethan’s closed lips until the corpse kid finally gave up and did as he was told, crying even harder. The trio all laughed, then finally released him and watched as he scrambled to his feet and ran away from them as fast as his stubby legs would take him.

“You’d better not go crying to your mommy and daddy, or you’re gonna get it even worse next time!” Lock shouted after him, but way down deep inside of him was a tiny, painful prickle of jealousy that he and his cohorts didn’t have any grown ups who really cared about them – and Shock and Barrel felt the same way deep down in their own hearts. Oogie wouldn’t have cared if they got beat up and humiliated, because he was the one who beat up and humiliated them more than anybody. And Jack… well, maybe Jack might have cared but they doubted it. He was too busy being the Pumpkin King and all he ever did was tell them to behave, so surely he didn’t care about three unimportant little trick-or-treaters like them. Why would he? Nobody else did.

“That’ll teach him!” Shock said, feeling very pleased with this latest act of violence and tamping down the little twinging pain of envy deep inside her, relishing in Ethan’s humiliation rather than her own.

“Yeah!” agreed Barrel, but he was thinking about Ethan’s dull, cloudy eyes and the way he was crying. Hurting someone was always fun in the moment, but the fun wore off quickly and he couldn’t help but see himself in Ethan’s place, only with Oogie Boogie laughing cruelly down at him instead.

Lock nodded firmly. Terrorizing someone else always helped dull that tiny prickle of pain inside him for a little while, which made it easier for him to repress any of those wimpy, weak feelings that he so despised. Barrel might still cry half the time Oogie beat him up or mocked him, but Lock never would. Not anymore. He picked up Ethan’s fallen comic book and flipped through it. “This looks stupid. How much you wanna bet his mommy bought it for him?” he sneered. Oogie might be mean, but at least when he brought them gifts they were usually much better than lame comic books. He tore it right down the middle just as Barrel had started to reach for it.

“Hey! I wanted to look at that!” he whined, and Lock looked down at him, shrugged, and then handed him the two halves of the comic.

“Sorry, here you go. I didn’t know you liked dumb comic books for babies.”

Barrel stuck his tongue out at him and shoved the comic in his pocket, hoping he could figure out how to tape it back together when they got home.

 

A few days later they headed out with a bunch of plant-killing powder that they planned to sprinkle all over the pumpkin seedlings in the big garden on the other side of town – they had put it in a candy bag so that it hopefully wouldn’t look suspicious. As they walked through the main square they saw Ethan and Gustov the bat-demon boy playing by the fountain. Their mothers were chatting with one another some distance away, and while they glanced suspiciously at the Boogie Boys they didn’t confront them. It appeared that Ethan hadn’t tattled. The grown ups were far enough away that they couldn’t overhear them, so the trio approached Ethan and Gustov, who immediately stopped giggling and looked warily at them, and they saw that the corpse kid had brand-new threads in his re-sewn eyes.

“So, it looks like you didn’t blab, ugly. Guess you do have a brain after all.” said Lock, and while he was glad they didn’t get tattled on and punished, part of him almost wished that Ethan had squealed just so they’d have a good excuse to pummel him again.

“What’d you tell your mommy and daddy?” sneered Shock, and Barrel wondered this as well because he wasn’t sure that he would have been able to come up with an excuse if he were in Ethan’s place.

“I just told them I took them out myself ‘cus I was curious…” murmured Ethan. It hadn’t gone over too well, but at least he hadn’t gotten punished. Mostly his parents just asked him why on earth he would do such a thing, then his mother sewed new threads in his eyelids while gently scolding him not to do it again and that he needed to keep his curiosity and over-active imagination in check.

“And they fell for it? Guess the stupid pumpkin doesn’t grow far from the vine.” smirked Shock, and if anything could make Ethan want to start a fight with her, that was it. But he didn’t dare, especially with her friends around, so he just frowned at them and swallowed his pride.

“Can we go now?” he asked, and the trio couldn’t really think of any other way they wanted to mess with him right now, so Lock shrugged casually and said:

“Sure, why do you think we’d wanna hang around with you?”

“Yeah, get out of here!” said Barrel meanly, trying to sound as tough as Lock and Shock, and Shock patted him on the head while smiling nastily at Ethan.

“See you around!” Shock called after the corpse kid and bat boy as they hurried back to their mothers, and this time she kept her voice deceptively friendly since the adults could hear her, and her cohorts snickered. “C’mon, dummies, let’s get out of here.” she said, and Lock slapped her leg with his tail for calling him a dummy, but she only stuck her tongue out at him and started walking towards the pumpkin patch. Barrel stuck his own tongue out at her back, then glanced behind him one last time only to see Ethan getting a hug from his mom. Barrel frowned a bit, then turned back around and hurried after his cohorts, not quite sure why exactly he was feeling a little bit sad – but surely it was nothing that a little more trouble-making couldn’t fix.


	5. The New Guillotine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A reader challenged me to figure out what might make Lock cry, since I imagine him as incredibly tough, and this is what I came up with. A bit more blood than in previous chapters, just FYI!

Lock, Shock and Barrel stared up in wonder at the towering new guillotine that had been erected in the main square. They had roughly elbowed their way to the front of the crowd to see what the big deal was, and they were truly awestruck by the terrifying-looking execution device that Dennis and Behemoth had built to commemorate nine-hundred successful Halloweens. Jack and the Mayor were currently giving a speech about it, but the children weren’t listening, they were too busy taking in all of the rough wooden beams and thick rope that supported an enormous, sharp steel blade. It was a truly wicked-looking device and they waited eagerly, hoping that Jack and the Mayor would drop the blade when they finally stopped talking, and the children weren’t disappointed: when the speeches concluded Jack untied the thick rope and the blade dropped swiftly and smoothly all the way down into the notch in the cobblestones that accommodated it. Everybody cheered, including the trick-or-treaters, and soon the crowd dispersed a bit and everyone began milling around having drinks, chatting, and sharing memories of the last nine-hundred Halloweens. Several townsfolk stayed near the guillotine to admire it, including the trio, and they were just about to get close enough to touch it when Jack suddenly stepped right in their way.

“Well, what do you think of the new art installation?” he asked them, and the kids didn’t know what an _‘art installation’_ was but they definitely knew that the guillotine was wicked-looking.

“It’s awesome, Jack!” Lock said excitedly, and his cohorts nodded.

“Yeah, it’s really cool!” added Shock.

“Super cool!” finished Barrel.

“I’m glad you think so.” Jack smiled down at them, but then his expression turned serious and he said very sternly, “Be careful around it! It’s _only_ for looking at or for creatures who can get cut without being hurt… which does NOT include trick-or-treaters, unless I’m very much mistaken – _which I am not!_ So you are absolutely NOT to touch or play with it. It is not a toy, do you understand?” Jack couldn’t remember the last time he’d used the word _‘not’_ so many times in a row, but the was trying to make it very, very clear to the children that this new fixture was extremely dangerous to creatures such as themselves – even more dangerous than their other somewhat risky toys and pranks.

“Of course, Jack.” said Shock in a tone that came as close to innocent as she was capable of.

“Whatever you say, Jack!” added Lock in his smoothest, most convincing voice.

“We won’t touch it, Jack!” finished Barrel, even though he absolutely couldn’t wait to touch it as soon as Jack wasn’t looking. Jack gave them one last suspicious look before walking away, then the children uncrossed their fingers and giggled naughtily together.

“Let’s come back tonight when that bone-brain isn’t around!” snickered Lock, and his cohorts agreed. There was no way they were going to let boring old Jack ruin all their fun.

 

Late after the orange sun had set and the huge, yellow moon had risen the trio left their treehouse and made the trek back to town, bubbling with excitement about playing with the forbidden guillotine. They quieted as they reached town, then did a careful inspection of the main square to make sure they were completely alone. Everyone who lived in town seemed to be asleep and the square was deserted, so they ran over to the huge, shiny execution device and Lock immediately grabbed the rope and tried to pull the blade up to the top – but it was too heavy so Shock took hold of the rope as well and together they succeeded. Once the blade was at the top they released the rope and it dropped with a menacing-sounding ‘ _slice’_.

“Cool!” squealed Barrel, and his cohorts had to agree. “What should we cut up?” he asked, and they looked around the square before settling on some nearby Jack-o-Lanterns. While Lock and Shock held the blade aloft, Barrel placed a large pumpkin beneath it and took a few steps back as they released the rope, and the pumpkin was sliced cleanly right in half. They cut up every large pumpkin they could find, and after Lock and Shock had had their fill of pulling the rope they started trading off with Barrel so he could get a chance to drop it, too. After they ran out of large Jack-o-Lanterns they moved on to smaller ones, and instead of cutting them they started rolling them beneath the blade as it dropped with the goal of either missing the blade or not – it didn’t really matter. Just rolling the pumpkins and dropping the blade was fun.

After awhile Lock started to get bored with pumpkins and tried to think of something else to do with their new toy. He had been paying attention to how long it took the blade to get from the top of the guillotine to the ground and he felt confident that he could run faster than the blade could drop. Being the little daredevil that he was, he called to his cohorts: “Pull it up and drop it when I count to three, got it?” They had no idea what he was up to – knowing Lock it would either be totally awesome or completely stupid, but they went along with it. “Watch this!” he boasted, and when they let go of the rope on his count he ran as fast as he could and dropped down to his knees to do what he thought would be a really cool-looking sideways slide beneath the guillotine… but he had tragically underestimated how fast the blade would drop and he also overestimated his own speed. It was a bad combination and with a sickening slice it lopped his tail clean off.

He screamed like he’d never screamed before and his cohorts stared in horror at the severed appendage as it twitched a bit where it lay on the ground – then Barrel doubled over and threw up right where he was standing. Shock stood there completely stunned for a second while Lock screamed in agony and cried harder than she’d ever heard him cry before, except for maybe when he was only a little toddler. Finally she snapped herself out of her stupor and quickly scanned her brain for everything she had learned from her reading about wounds and injuries. She’d read all about those things for fun, but there was absolutely nothing fun about seeing her friend this badly hurt. Finally she thought she knew the best course of action.

“Barrel! Stop puking and go get Jack!” she shouted, her voice trembling as she took off her hat and tore off the band of fabric that decorated it where the pointy top met the brim. Barrel didn’t react, he still seemed to be in shock so she shouted at him even louder: “GO GET JACK NOW!” and he finally seemed to register her instructions and ran away as fast as his little legs would take him to do as she said. Shock dropped her hat and quickly ran over to kneel at Lock’s side where he was writhing around on the ground in absolute agony with a rapidly growing pool of blood next to what was left of his tail. There were about six inches or so still attached to his body and Shock was thanking the Halloween gods that the blade hadn’t sliced through his arm or leg or anywhere else more important. “Hold still, I gotta tie your tail so it doesn’t bleed so much!” she said to him, and she brought the fabric band from her hat down to his flailing stump. Her hands were shaking so much and his tail was jerking and twitching so violently and was so slippery with blood that she couldn’t get ahold of it. “Lock, you gotta hold still!” she yelled again, making another grab for it and it spurted blood all over her trembling hands.

“I can’t!” he sobbed, but she finally managed to grab it and wrapped the fabric around the end and tied it in the tightest knot she could to form a tourniquet. He screamed even louder at that and Shock felt a little queasy, but at least the flow of blood slowed down considerably. “Shock!” he sobbed again, “Is my… is it…?”

She thought he might be trying to ask if it was still attached, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth. “You’re fine! Stop being a baby!” she said in what she hoped was a convincing voice, but he only cried harder, tears running down his face that somehow looked even whiter than it normally was. She squeezed the end of his tail as hard as she could, trying to help stop the bleeding more and put her other hand on his shoulder in what she hoped was a comforting gesture just as a voice called out:

“What in Halloween is going on out here?” It was Harlequin, wearing his tentacle-curlers and coming out of his house to see what the racket was, and he stopped in his tracks when he saw the situation. He didn’t particularly care for the trick-or-treaters, but that didn’t mean he wanted that annoying little devil to get his tail chopped off, not really. He imagined that losing one of his own tentacles would feel similar and be truly awful, so he actually felt some sympathy for Lock. Cydny the cyclops came out next and looked equally alarmed despite disliking the children a great deal, and more townspeople who lived nearby followed – some gasping in shock and a few feeling grimly satisfied that the little devil was finally getting some sort of comeuppance for being such a troublemaker… though it was a rather harsh thing for them to think. Nobody moved to help, they all just stood around gawking though someone did murmur something about getting Jack. Shock didn’t pay attention to any of them, she just stayed next to Lock, squeezing the bloody end of his tail while gripping onto his shoulder and trying to get him to calm down. She wasn’t having much success, however, because she wasn’t exactly calm herself.

“Why are you so stupid!?” she said, now feeling intensely angry with him for just about getting himself killed. “You could have chopped yourself in half, you moron! Why don’t you ever use your brain, you big, dumb show-off!?” Her voice was getting more and more hysterical the more she thought about what could have happened. Lock looked up pathetically at her, gritting his teeth and trying to get himself under control but failing miserably as tears continued to stream down his cheeks.

“Is it still on?” he moaned between shuddering, gasping sobs, but she ignored his question, still not having the heart to tell him that it was actually several feet away on the ground, no longer twitching.

“I told you, you’re fine! You’re such a stupid idiot!” she shrieked, now feeling the urge to punch him in the face – maybe that would take his mind off his tail.

After what felt like a million years, Jack finally arrived. He was carrying Barrel in one arm, no doubt because there was no way the little ghoul would have been able to keep up with his ridiculously long stride, then he put Barrel down and quick as a flash scooped up Lock instead.

“We’ve got to get him to Dr. Finkelstein.” Jack said firmly, looking Shock right in the eye and she nodded in understanding. Then he picked Lock’s severed tail up off of the cobblestones as well, and without another word he took off in the direction of the doctor’s laboratory so quickly that it seemed like his feet were barely touching the ground.

“C’mon!” Shock said, grabbing Barrel’s hand and taking off running after Jack, though she took just enough time to yell back at the crowd, “Thanks for nothing, losers!” Honestly, nobody in the whole stinking town had tried to help. All the townspeople hated them, and right in that moment she hated all of them right back. Barrel ran as fast as he could but Shock’s legs were so much longer than his and his feet were so awkward that within mere seconds he could no longer keep up with her. He tripped and she dragged him along on his knees for a few steps before she let go of his hand and he fell all the way down flat on his face. But instead of helping him up, Shock just kept running. “Get up, klutzy!” she yelled, and Barrel scrambled to his feet and hurried after her, too worried about Lock to be upset about her insult or his scraped knee.

It took forever for them to reach the laboratory and Shock found Sally waiting for them on the front steps, which was fortunate because she and Barrel couldn’t have pushed open the heavy doors or reached the doorbell by themselves. “How is he?!” Shock panted as Barrel finally caught up to her, wheezing and holding his side.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine, the doctor is fixing him up right now.” Sally said, and she placed a gentle hand on each of the children’s shoulders and ushered them inside. Shock and Barrel wanted to go up and see their friend, but Sally led them into the kitchen instead. “Do you want anything to eat or drink while we wait? I have some tea that will help calm you down a bit.” she offered. Shock’s first instinct was to refuse but her heart was pounding so hard and she had run so fast and so far that she felt like she might barf – and Barrel looked even worse – so she decided to accept the offer.

“Do you have something to help stomachs? Barrel puked earlier.” She didn’t want to admit that she felt like puking herself, so she tried to make it sound like her littlest cohort was the only one who really needed it.

“Of course.” Sally said kindly, and she pulled a few jars of herbs out of the cupboard and got the kettle going. She chose some herbs that would soothe their anxious little tummies and neutralize the bad taste that Barrel no doubt had in his mouth, and she also threw in some herbs that would help calm their nerves a bit. She handed them their mugs and pulled up a third chair to sit between them at the table, then put a reassuring hand on each of their little shoulders. “He’ll be alright.” she said soothingly, and at first the kids were too shaken up to reject the affection… and then after a few moments they decided that they didn’t _want_ to reject the affection. It was the first time that they could remember a grown up touching and speaking to them so tenderly and it felt surprisingly good.

“How do you know?” Shock said, trying to sound skeptical but instead she just sounded desperate.

“Dr. Finkelstein is a genius.” Sally said simply. “You’d be surprised what he’s capable of.”

“He made you, right?” Barrel said quietly.  

“Yes, he did. So sewing Lock’s tail back on will be no trouble at all. He could probably do it with his eyes closed.” Sally smiled at them, and Barrel giggled a little and said:

“What if he _does_ do it with his eyes closed and sews it onto Lock’s head or something on accident?”

“Or his armpit?” added Shock, deciding that would be pretty hilarious.

“Or his butt!” Barrel said just because butts were funny, but then he realized that’s where Lock’s tail belonged anyway.

“You’re so dumb.” Shock rolled her eyes and Sally chuckled softly. Although she wished it were under better circumstances, it was so nice having someone besides Dr. Finkelstein and Igor around to talk to.

 

Things were a bit less pleasant upstairs. Jack had arrived earlier with Lock in hand and pushed right through the heavy doors while shouting for the doctor. Sally had hurried downstairs first, wearing her patchwork nightdress and holding onto the handrail to keep from tumbling down the steps. While normally a visit from Jack would make her heart flutter pleasantly, this time it fluttered in a completely different sort of way when she saw that he had blood on his pale beige pajamas and Lock curled up and shaking in his arms… and then she saw the detached tail dangling from Jack’s hand and her own hands flew to her mouth with a gasp. “Bring him to the top floor, I’ll get the doctor!” she told him, and Jack practically flew up the staircase four steps at a time. He placed Lock on the metal operating table and though he was trying to keep the amputated tail hidden, Lock caught a glimpse of it and wailed:

“I knew it! It came off! Am I gonna die?” Life without his tail was unfathomable and he started crying even harder. Jack placed one bony hand on Lock’s shoulder and spoke in a gentle but authoritative voice:

“Of course not, you’re going to be just fine. The doctor will be here any second and he’ll make everything okay. I promise.” He’d never seen the little devil so upset and frightened and it sparked a strong, protective sort of feeling in him unlike anything he’d ever felt before.

Finally Dr. Finkelstein wheeled into the room with Igor hot on his heels and he rolled right up to the operating table and looked down at his patient. The trick-or-treaters were definitely not among his favorite Halloween Town citizens, but while the trio had played plenty of pranks on him over the years Lock was still a child and he was in agony. And while Dr. Finkelstein could be grumpy – and he was certainly feeling grumpy right now – he wasn’t cruel. “Well, it looks like you’ve done quite a number on yourself, m’boy.” he said in a very cranky tone of voice, and Lock looked up at him fearfully, hoping that the doctor wouldn’t take this opportunity to enact his revenge for all the pranks Lock and his friends had pulled on him. Dr. Finkelstein held out his hand to receive a syringe full of clear liquid that Igor passed to him and Lock stared at it anxiously. “This will put you to sleep for a bit, and when you wake up your tail will be good as new.” he said, and Lock then looked up at Jack with a somewhat desperate expression, hoping that Jack would protect him from any nefarious actions by the potentially vengeful doctor. Jack patted him reassuringly on the shoulder and gently stroked the little devil’s pale, sweaty forehead as Igor limped over and rolled Lock’s sleeve up so the doctor could inject the syringe into his arm. Lock didn’t even flinch, he was far too distracted by the pain in his tail and his anxiety about being put to sleep… what if he didn’t wake up again? He tried to fight it but the drug was strong and he was out like a light almost instantly.

“How bad is it, Doctor?” asked Jack while Igor hung up a transfusion bag and the doctor stuck the needle into a vein in Lock’s arm to replenish some of the blood he’d lost. While he was confident in Dr. Finkelstein’s abilities, Jack was no doctor and since he didn’t have flesh himself he wasn’t sure how serious an injury such as this was. He could take off his body parts at will with no pain whatsoever, but clearly Lock had been suffering tremendously.

“Merely a trifle,” Dr. Finkelstein said casually, wheeling over to a large worktable and opening up a drawer to retrieve some supplies. The surgery was complete within two hours, and Jack watched with great interest as the doctor peeled the skin around the wound back to more easily access the inner structures and he reconnected every nerve, muscle, tendon, vertebrae and blood vessel with exacting precision before stitching the outer layer of muscle tightly back together. Then Igor handed him a device that looked somewhat like jumper cables and he zapped the reattached tail to test that all of the nerves and muscles were communicating with one another properly. He seemed satisfied by the way it jerked and flopped around on the table as the electricity coursed through it, so he replaced the flaps of peeled-back skin and smoothed them down with some sort of glue, and when he was finished Jack couldn’t see any indication whatsoever that any damage had occurred.

“Excellent work, Doctor!” Jack said delightedly. “We’re quite lucky to have a such an exemplary genius as yourself!”

“Yes, especially this little delinquent.” Dr. Finkelstein said grumpily as he removed the needle from Lock’s arm, thinking about the time the pranksters had cut the brake lines of his wheelchair and sent him sprawling.

Jack smiled at him and said, “Now Doctor, you know just as well as I do that playing tricks is part of their job description.” but the doctor merely grumbled some curses under his breath and wheeled aside so Igor could put a bandage on Lock’s arm and wrap a cast around the broken area of his tail.

“I don’t suppose it would be alright for the children to stay here tonight?” asked Jack. “It’s really quite late to be sending them all the way back to their treehouse, and surely you’ll want to check on Lock in the morning?”

Dr. Finkelstein looked crankier than ever, but then he sighed. “I suppose so. I have an extra room that locks from the outside, surely they can’t cause too much trouble in there before morning.” Jack grinned again and picked up the unconscious, drooling little devil and followed the doctor through the operating room door as Igor stayed behind to clean everything up. The doctor showed Jack to the room, which was completely barren save for one heavily-barred window and a mop and bucket in the corner. He placed the sleeping Lock down gently on the floor as Dr. Finkelstein said, “I’ll have Sally put together something for them to sleep on. You go on home, Jack, we’ll take care of it from here.”

“Thank you, Doctor, that is very gracious of you.” Jack said, but the doctor only muttered some more under his breath and wheeled back towards the stair lift to see him out, but Jack added, “That’s not necessary, I’ll see myself out. I’ll come by in the morning to make sure everything is alright. Thank you again!” He waved cheerfully as he descended the staircase and Dr. Finkelstein couldn’t help but wonder how Jack managed to be so energetic all the time… though he supposed that was part of why Jack was the Pumpkin King.

 

Jack saw the light on in the kitchen and walked in to find that Sally had convinced Shock and Barrel to have a snack along with their tea, and as soon as he entered the children straightened up and said together, “Is Lock okay?” Jack had Lock’s blood all down the front of his pajamas, but he didn’t seem to care. Sally felt herself blushing as he came up to stand beside her and she quickly turned away to clean up the children’s empty dishes so that he wouldn’t see.

“He’s just fine, Dr. Finkelstein fixed him right up, his tail looks perfect. I daresay you won’t even notice a difference once the cast comes off!” he said gently, and the children relaxed. Jack may be a bone-in-the-mud who always told them to behave, but he had never lied to them as far as they knew so they believed him when he said Lock was alright. Then he looked right at Shock and asked, “Did you tie that tourniquet?” She nodded and Jack beamed at her. “That’s very impressive! Excellent thinking, Shock, you definitely helped him a lot. Where did you learn how to do that?”

Shock swelled with pride at this compliment and sat up a little taller. “I read about it in a book.” she answered proudly, leaving out the part about it being a book she had stolen from the town library.

Jack smiled at her and then turned to Barrel and said kindly, “And you, Barrel, you ran all the way from town square to my house to get help. That’s a very long run, and then you ran all the way here, too. Lock is very lucky to have such great friends like you.” Barrel grinned happily – nobody had ever complimented him on his running before.

Jack decided that lecturing them about playing with the guillotine could wait since it seemed likely that they had learned quite a lesson after the events of this evening, especially Lock. He turned to Sally – who had finally gotten her blushing under control – and said, “Sally, the doctor is allowing Lock, Shock and Barrel to stay here tonight. Would you be so kind as to set them up with a place to sleep in the spare room on the fifth floor?”

“Of course, Jack.” she said shyly, and Shock and Barrel looked dubiously at one another. They had never slept anywhere but their treehouse before, but they didn’t want to leave Lock by himself at the mad doctor’s house. Besides that, the adrenaline had worn off and the sedating tea was starting to kick in and they didn’t think they had the energy to walk all the way back home.

“Thank you,” Jack said with a smile, and he placed one bony hand on Sally’s shoulder before heading for the door. “I’ll be back in the morning to check on things. Be good house guests, you two!” he called to the children, and they couldn’t help but roll their eyes. Jack really was a broken record when it came to telling them what to do… though they supposed that if they had listened to him about not playing with the guillotine then they wouldn’t have gotten into this situation in the first place. They hopped off of their chairs and followed Sally to the staircase, and just then Sally noticed that Barrel’s pants over his right knee had a tear in them.

“Did you hurt yourself?” she asked gently.

“I just scraped my knee, it’s no big deal, it doesn’t hurt at all.” he answered, though the truth was that it hurt a tiny bit. Sally decided it needed attending to anyway, so she first led them to the bathroom so she could get an antiseptic potion and a bandage, then she took them up to her own room. She sat the little ghoul down on her squeaky iron bed and Shock wandered over to look at the sewing machine – she found it fascinating and wished that it was small enough to steal somehow. Sally rolled up Barrel’s pant leg to see his scraped knee, and she gently cleaned and bandaged it. Barrel squirmed a little bit on the bed because it felt weird to have a grown up taking care of him like this, but it felt nice, too. She rolled his pant leg back down and got a needle and some grey thread that matched his costume and within only a minute had the tear perfectly sewn shut.

“There you go.” she said, and Barrel smiled shyly.

“Thanks.” he mumbled, and hopped back off the bed to follow her out the door and Shock trailed along after them with one last wistful glance at the sewing machine. Sally managed to scrounge up a few raggedy blankets and extra pillows, and as Barrel and Shock climbed into their makeshift beds Sally picked up Lock to place him in his own. He groggily started to come to as Sally picked him up, and he opened his eyes to look blearily up into the rag doll’s gentle face. After he remembered where he was and what had happened his eyes widened and he asked anxiously:

“My tail! Is it…?”

“Shhh… it’s fine, see?” Sally said, and Lock looked behind him to see that it indeed appeared to be reattached beneath the cast. He exhaled in relief and wanted to try moving it, but it was still way too sore and the cast prevented him from moving it much anyway. He let Sally tuck him into bed and even accepted the spoonful of potion she offered him – she had slipped into her pocket earlier that evening – because she said would dull the pain and help him sleep, and right at that moment there weren’t any other two things in the world that Lock wanted more. After one last check to make sure there was nothing else they needed, Sally told them goodnight and closed the door – being sure to lock it behind her. Being frequently locked up and confined by the doctor herself, she hated the idea of locking them in… but she also didn’t want to have to clean up any trouble they may decide to cause.

Once she was gone, Shock sat up in her blankets and looked down at Lock. “What happened up there?” she asked, and Barrel rolled over to listen to their conversation.

“I dunno, he just gave me a shot and then I fell asleep.” Lock yawned. The medicine that Sally had just given him was starting to work already.

“Okay, great.” Shock said irritably. “So what happened out there with the stupid guillotine and your suicide attempt? You think I wanna get stuck with only Barrel to kick around?!”

“Hey!” frowned Barrel.

“It wasn’t a suicide attempt, I just thought it would look cool!” protested Lock, though he could hardly keep his eyes open anymore.

“Ugh!” Shock huffed, then lay back down in her own blankets to try and go to sleep. It was just her luck to be stuck with the two biggest dummies in all of Halloween Town for best friends. But dummies or not, life without them would be just like life for Lock without his tail: unfathomable.


	6. The New Guillotine - epilogue

Everyone slept in quite late the next morning, especially the children since they’d gotten even less sleep than anyone else that night. Jack arrived just as Sally was fixing up some breakfast for him, the children, Dr. Finkelstein, Igor, and herself – and she’d made something extra-special since she knew he would be joining them that morning.

“Good morning, Sally!” he said cheerfully as she opened the front doors to let him in. “Did everything go alright with the kids overnight? Where are they now?” He glanced around as if he were expecting the three of them to be in the middle of some sort of mischief-making.

“Good morning, Jack. I think they’re all still asleep.” she said bashfully as she fussed with her apron. “I was just about to go and check on them as soon as I took the quiche out of the oven.”

“Don’t trouble yourself, I’ll go and check on them. It sounds like you’re busy enough in the kitchen. It smells wonderful!” he smiled at her as he headed up the ramp, and those pesky moths were fluttering around in Sally’s stomach again.

Jack unlocked the door, swung the heavy bar open and poked his skull inside see all three of the children in one big wad of blankets on the floor with Lock in the middle – it appeared that they had all ended up scooting close to one another and snuggling in their sleep. Lock and Shock had begun to stir from the sound of Jack unlocking and opening the heavy steel door, but Barrel was still completely passed out on his back, snoring softly. Jack considered trying to back out quietly and letting them have a few more minutes to rest, but then Shock sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

“I’m starving.” she mumbled.

“Me too.” Lock said, rolling over to face Jack and yawning loudly. Barrel continued to snore.

“Sally is making breakfast downstairs. Come on down when you’re ready.” Jack said, and Lock elbowed Barrel in the side of his head.

“Food time.” he said, and the little ghoul finally stirred at that.

 

“How does your tail feel?” Jack asked Lock as the children followed him down the ramp.

“Fine.” the little devil lied. The truth was that it hurt a great deal but he didn’t want to seem like a wimp. Whatever pain medication he’d been given the night before had completely worn off and he was taking great care to keep from moving his tail at all, but with every step he took it was almost impossible for him not to grimace. Shock looked at him suspiciously – she could usually tell when he was lying, and if he was telling the truth right now she would eat her hat.

“Yeah right, you liar. How can it possibly not hurt, it got chopped off! Stop trying to act so tough!” she sneered.

“I told you, it feels fine!” he snapped back, but he was already trying to figure out a way to steal some more pain meds before they went back to their treehouse. Jack didn’t believe him, either, but he stopped short of calling him out on it – at least until after breakfast.

When they passed the doctor’s study he wheeled out and beckoned them all back up to the operating room so he could inspect Lock’s tail. He made the little devil stand still for some radiographs to make sure that the bones were set properly, then he felt the tip that was poking out of the end of the cast to make sure that it felt warm and well-perfused with blood before pricking it with a needle several times to make sure that the sensation was still intact. Everything seemed to be in order, so Jack and the children headed back down for breakfast.

They entered the kitchen to find that Sally had prepared quite an impressive spread: hot tea for the grown-ups and pumpkin juice for the children, apple and spider fritters, bat bacon and a large, delicious-smelling raven egg, henbane and bloodroot quiche. The children were amazed by the sheer quantity of delicious-looking food and it smelled incredible. Oogie Boogie was a good cook, but this looked better than anything even he had made for them. They took their seats but Lock could no longer hide his wincing as he had to move his tail enough to sit down. Before his little backside could even make contact with the chair, Sally handed him two pills and a glass of pumpkin juice. “Here, these will help.” she said gently, and Lock desperately wanted to refuse and keep up his tough façade but it was just too painful so he accepted the pills and juice without a word. Fortunately his cohorts were too distracted to give him a hard time about it as they had immediately leaned over the table and started piling food onto their plates without waiting for anybody else. Jack knew it was pointless to lecture them on their table manners – he tried to keep his lecturing to more important misbehavior because if he didn’t then he would be lecturing them constantly and soon they would tune him out even more than they already did. And besides, there was a different lecture to be had this morning. Sally left the kitchen to bring Dr. Finkelstein and Igor their plates, since Igor usually ate in his room and the doctor in his study, and Jack looked at the trio.

“Well,” he said lightly once he and the children had finished dishing up. “I hope you can see that it was a mistake to play with the guillotine after I explicitly advised you not to do so.”

“It just looked really fun.” Barrel said, and he was barely intelligible through his mouth stuffed with fritter, quiche and bacon. Everything looked so good that he couldn’t decide what to start with, so he tried fitting everything in there all at once.

“I dunno, I think it was worth it.” Shock said slyly, and Lock glared at her.

“You weren’t the one who got your tail chopped off!” he snapped, and he was about to launch a fork-full of quiche at her but Jack saw it coming and quickly grabbed Lock’s wrist to stop him just as Sally re-entered the kitchen and got some food for herself.

“No food fights while you’re a guest in someone’s home.” he said sternly, then he looked the little devil right in the eye. “You are very, very lucky that the doctor was able to reattach your tail. Think about how you would feel if he couldn’t. A devil without his tail would be a very sad thing, don’t you agree?”

“I guess.” Lock said churlishly, poking his knife around on his plate now, though deep inside he absolutely agreed. He shuddered to think about how terrible he would feel without his tail. He might as well just lie down under the guillotine and let it finish the job if that had happened.

“Sad _and_ stupid looking.” Shock snickered, and Barrel giggled a little through his full mouth.

“How’d _you_ like it if it cut off your big, dumb nose!?” Lock yelled, clenching his silverware tightly and weighing the pros and cons of flinging them at her face with Jack sitting right there.

Jack turned to the little witch and said, “He’s absolutely right, Shock. You or Barrel could have just as easily been hurt or killed by playing with that guillotine. I understand that playing tricks is part of what makes you trick-or-treaters and I don’t want to discourage you from doing your jobs, but you really need to be more careful.”

The children glanced at one another. They’d never heard anybody tell them it was okay to pull pranks and they weren’t quite sure they’d heard him right.

“Halloween wouldn’t be the same without trick-or-treaters and I care about you three very much.” he continued, and now the children _really_ didn’t know if they’d heard him right. Jack cared about them? Since when?

“So do I.” added Sally. “We’d be very sad to lose any one of you.”

“So please keep your tricks less dangerous, understand?” Jack finished, and the children didn’t know what to say. Finally a naughty grin spread across Lock’s face – the pain pills were kicking in and suddenly finding another trick to play sounded like fun.

“Of course, Jack.” he said, trying to sound innocent.

“Sure thing, Jack!” added Shock in her sweetest voice.

“We’ll be careful, Jack!” muffled Barrel through his food, and three little sets of fingers were crossed beneath the table.


	7. The Time Bomb

“Look what I made!” Shock said proudly, marching out of her room to show off her masterpiece to her cohorts, who were having an arm-wrestling match on the living room floor.

“What is it?” asked Barrel, and Lock took the opportunity to slam Barrel’s arm into the floor while he was distracted.

“It’s a bomb!” Lock said when he looked up at it. Barrel might be a dummy, but Lock knew a bomb when he saw one. He grinned evilly and instantly thought of a million different things that would be excellent to blow up. How were they ever going to choose just one?

“Not just a regular bomb, it’s a time bomb!” she said proudly, showing the alarm clock that she’d jury-rigged onto it with wire and duct tape.

“Where’d you learn how to make that?” Lock said eagerly, getting to his feet and rushing over to have a closer look. He tried to grab it out of her hands but she held it up out of his reach and said snottily:

“I read about it, stupid. Maybe one of these days you’ll finally grow a brain and learn to read and you can make your own!” Lock was tempted to punch her in the stomach so she’d drop it and he could look at it better, but even he wasn’t reckless enough to try that and risk blowing up their treehouse – and himself.

“Reading is dumb!” he sneered.

“But bombs are awesome!” chimed in Barrel, who was equally excited to blow something up. “What are we gonna explode?” He rubbed his hands together excitedly.

“I know just the thing.” Shock said slyly, and a malicious grin spread across her face.

 

“Okay, here’s the plan.” she said as they approached town. “Everyone’s at a town meeting…”

“How do you know?” Lock interrupted.

“I checked the schedule last time we were here, idiot. So we’re gonna sneak into that stupid Mayor’s house and blow up his toilet!” Her cohorts giggled evilly, fully on-board with this plan because they’d been wanting to do that forever. “I’m gonna set the timer for a little bit after the meeting’s supposed to be done, so hopefully he’ll come home just in time for it to blow up! And maybe if we’re really lucky he’ll be sitting on it!” They all laughed loudly at that thought, then quieted down as they passed the town hall where all the grown-ups were talking about whatever boring grown-up stuff went on at town meetings. The Mayor lived right downtown and they had broken into his house so many times in the past that within minutes they were inside and knew right where to go. “You two keep watch in case he comes home early!” Shock ordered her cohorts. She knew that it was highly unlikely he would come home early unless the meeting was cancelled, but it was always a possibility. Plus she wanted to enjoy the privilege of being the one to set up the prank all by herself – she had done all the work so she figured she’d earned it, after all.

Once the boys had gone to the living room to peek out the front windows and make sure the coast was clear she knelt by the toilet and put the bomb on the floor behind it, then carefully set the timer for an hour and five minutes. Then she pushed the button to start the countdown… and then she heard a deafening boom and felt a powerful rush of air for a split-second before everything went black.

The house shook and Lock and Barrel immediately jumped up from their hiding places at the unmistakable sound and feeling of an explosion, and they looked at one another with wide, shocked eyes before they both tore down the hall to the bathroom without a word. “Shock!?” Lock hollered, and when they reached the bathroom they saw a truly terrible sight: she was on the ground slumped against the wall facing the toilet with her hat blown off, covered in dust and debris and bits of porcelain as what was left of the toilet gushed water all over the floor.

“Are you okay?” Barrel asked as he hurried over to her, but she didn’t respond and when he and Lock got right next to her they saw that she was either out cold or dead. She had small cuts all over her face and dress and there was a little trickle of blood coming out of her mouth.

“SHOCK!” Lock yelled again, and he shook her shoulder but she only flopped over more to the side.

Barrel started to panic. “What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?” he whimpered over and over, but Lock was completely stunned, staring down at her limp body, cut face and bleeding mouth and he realized he had no idea what to do, either. He couldn’t even tell if she was alive or not and he had no clue how to check, and he started panicking as well.

“SHOCK!” he practically screamed, shaking her again, but it was just as ineffective as it had been the first time. He wracked his brain for what to do… and the only thing he could come up with was to get help. “You stay here, I’ll go get Jack!” he said shakily and Barrel nodded as tears started to stream down his round little cheeks, then Lock tore out of the bathroom as fast as his legs would take him. He had decided that he should be the one to go for help because he could run the fastest… but also because deep down he didn’t think he could handle it if she died in his arms. On that unspeakably awful thought he felt tears welling up in his own eyes and by the time he reached the town hall he was crying openly.

“Jack!” he screamed as he ran into the hall, and he was so frantic that he actually tripped and went sprawling right down the aisle. Everyone turned to look down at him but he didn’t care – he just had to get Jack’s attention. “Shock needs the doctor!” he cried desperately from the floor, and the townspeople murmured and many rolled their eyes. So now the little pranksters were faking illness and injury in order to get attention? Nearly everyone was convinced that Lock was crying wolf or that this was some sort of set-up for a joke, but a few noticed his tears and wondered if he was actually telling the truth. He was a good – and frequent – liar, but as far as they knew he wasn’t able to fake tears. Fortunately, however, Jack saw the fear on his face and the panic in his voice and immediately believed him.

“Where is she?” he asked, bounding off of the stage and picking the little devil right up off the floor, for it took Lock at least ten steps to go the same distance that Jack could walk in one.

“The Mayor’s house!” Lock said, clinging tightly onto Jack’s neck.

“WHAT?!” shrieked the Mayor, his head quickly swiveling to distress.

“We’ll deal with it later, Mayor, I promise.” Jack called over his shoulder as he strode through the door without even bothering to close it behind him, and it took only a moment to reach the scene of the accident since Jack could run so incredibly fast.

“In the bathroom. I don’t know if she’s alive!” Lock wailed, smooshing his little face against Jack’s shoulder and crying into his suit, and Jack wasn’t sure if he should tell him it would be alright or not… because it was entirely possible that they had finally done something that was just too dangerous even for their relatively tough little bodies to take. They entered the bathroom and Jack saw the tiny witch on the floor, slumped against the wall and covered in dust and debris with Barrel crying next to her and holding her limp hand. Water was flowing from the destroyed toilet onto the floor and it was very obvious that a significant explosion had taken place – and that Shock had been far too close to it. Jack set Lock down and quickly knelt to put two bony fingers against her neck, trying to feel for a pulse.

“Is she dead?!” Barrel sobbed, looking up at Jack with huge, red-rimmed, watery eyes. He’d been crying so hard that his nose was all runny but he hadn’t bothered to wipe it. Lock was absolutely beside himself, he’d never felt so powerless and he couldn’t make up his mind between pacing around, standing still, sitting down and sobbing or punching the wall. Jack leaned down even further, trying to feel her breath against his skull but he couldn’t feel anything. He was on the verge of panicking himself when he finally felt a very weak pulse – Shock was alive, at least for now.

“She’s still alive, but we need to get her to the doctor immediately.” Jack said as he very, very carefully picked her up, not wanting to cause any more damage in case there were injuries that weren’t immediately apparent. “Both of you climb on my back, you’ll need to tell the doctor exactly what happened.” Lock and Barrel both scrambled onto him piggy-back style, one on each shoulder, and they held on for dear life as Jack stood up to his full towering height and sprinted out of the house.

 

“Doctor!” Jack shouted as he pushed his way into the laboratory foyer. “It’s an emergency!”

Sally hurried out of the kitchen wiping her hands on her apron, and while this time she didn’t see much blood and there were no detached body parts in Jack’s hand she could still tell that Shock was in a bad state.

“Take her to the top floor, he should be in his study on the fourth!” she said, and followed behind them as Jack could move, much quicker than she could. Dr. Finkelstein had heard Jack calling him and wheeled out of his study to see the Pumpkin King dashing up the ramp with a clearly-unconscious Shock in his arms and the boys hanging onto his back like two little monkeys.

“ _Now_ what have they done to themselves?” he said grumpily as began ascending to the top floor. It seemed like it hadn’t been all that long ago that he’d had to reattach that annoying little devil’s tail, though at least this time it wasn’t the middle of the night.

“We blew up the Mayor’s toilet!” Barrel cried over Jack’s shoulder as they entered the operating room.

“Shock made a bomb and it wasn’t supposed to go off until the timer was done but it didn’t and it blew up too soon at her and now she’s dead!” Lock blurted out, and even though his sentence wasn’t exactly grammatically correct he’d gotten the point across.

“Blew up the Mayor’s toilet, eh?” Dr. Finkelstein said as he wheeled over to the large worktable where he kept many of his medical supplies, and he couldn’t help but be a tiny bit amused because that two-faced politician had always irritated him a bit. “The next time you kids want to make a bomb, come to me. I’d rather teach you how to blow up toilets properly than have to keep patching you up every other week.” he grumbled, though there was just the slightest hint of dry humor in his voice. Jack carefully set Shock on the operating table and then bent down so that Lock and Barrel could slide off of his back a bit closer to the floor just as Sally and Igor entered the room. The boys got as close to the operating table as they could – and Lock just about climbed onto it – but Jack and Sally gently pulled them back.

“I know you’re worried, but you need to give the doctor some space, please.” Jack said.

“Maybe we should leave the room?” Sally suggested quietly, but Lock planted his curly-toed shoes, crossed his arms and said firmly:

“I’m staying with her!”

“Me too!” said Barrel, mimicking his older cohort’s stubborn posture.

Jack scrutinized them carefully for a moment. “Very well, but you need to stay quiet and out of the way, otherwise we’ll need to leave. Can you do that?” he said, and they both nodded.

Dr. Finkelstein meanwhile had put on a stethoscope and was listening carefully all over Shock’s chest. “I’ve got a heartbeat and respiration,” he murmured, then he listened to her stomach and abdomen. “Sounds like there could be some damage here, and I’m concerned about her lungs as well. I’ll need to take some radiographs to rule out abdominal hemorrhage and pulmonary barotrauma.”

“What does that mean?” whispered Barrel. He had no idea what those words meant but they sounded scary and bad – and not in a good way.

“Shhh!!!!” Lock shushed him and elbowed him in the side. Jack had told them to be quiet and there was no way Lock was going to screw up and get kicked out of the room. Plus if it hadn’t been his friend who was on that table it would have been really interesting, so he tried to pretend that it was someone he hated and not Shock.

As Igor starting hooking Shock up to some sort of weird machine the doctor got a different instrument and looked in her ears. “There’s some tympanic rupture, but nothing that I can’t fix.” he said casually, then he peeled back each of her eyelids and shone a light into them. “Fortunately her eyes seem to be unharmed. Those are a bit trickier to repair, but still easily within my capabilities. Though she probably gave herself a concussion when she hit the ground.”

“We think she hit the wall.” Barrel said, and Lock glared furiously at him for talking again but the doctor said:

“That’s good information to have. She most certainly has a concussion in that case, and possibly some dorsal orthopedic trauma as well.” He began injecting her with various needles while Igor placed a mask with some tubing over her mouth and nose and hooked the tubing up to a spigot in the wall. Then the doctor wheeled over to a very large, very creepy-looking machine, pushed a button on the control panel and a huge arm unfolded from the wall and began slowly scanning down the length of her body from head to foot, making weird clicking noises as it went. Lock and Barrel pressed close together anxiously and once again Lock wished that it were anybody other than Shock (or Barrel… or himself) on that table because the creepy machine looked so awesome.

Dr. Finkelstein then moved the machine arm back to its place against the wall and began wheeling towards the exit. “Igor will get those radiographs developed and then we’ll have a better idea of what the damage is. If she begins to deteriorate she may need to be intubated, but for now I’ll keep her sedated and on oxygen and she’ll need close observation.”

“I’ll do it!” said Lock, deciding to risk speaking up.

“Me too!” added Barrel.

Jack opened his mouth to tell them no, but Sally gently touched his arm and said, “I’ll stay with them, Jack, it’s okay. You get back to town hall. I’m sure they’ll behave themselves.”

The boys both nodded frantically and said in unison: “We’ll behave!” Normally Jack wouldn’t have trusted them, but considering their best friend’s life was on the line he decided to chance it this time.

“Alright. But you MUST listen to Sally, Dr. Finkelstein and Igor and obey them _, no exceptions_. That is the best way that you can help Shock, do you understand? I’m trusting you. If you cause trouble I will be extremely disappointed.”

The children couldn’t care less about disappointing Jack, but they’d heard the part about their behaving being the best way to help their friend so they didn’t cross their fingers this time when they promised to do as he said.

 

After standing around and just watching Shock for several minutes Sally said quietly, “I’ll be right back. Please don’t touch anything while I’m gone.”

“Do you think we’re stupid?” Lock snapped, but then he remembered what Jack had said about behaving so he shut his mouth. Sally gave him a sympathetic smile before leaving the room, and after a moment she returned with a chair, and then another, and then a third. She pulled a pack of cards and a bag of candies out of her pocket and beckoned Lock and Barrel to come sit on the chairs beside her, and they did. The candy looked good and it was getting boring just watching Shock laying there not doing anything.

“Do you know any good card games?” Sally asked. Once again while she wished it were under better circumstances, deep down she was excited to have company, even if it was just two anxious, naughty children and one unconscious one. She wished that Jack could stay, too, but she knew he was busy so she pushed her disappointment to the back of her mind.

“We know poker.” said Lock.

“And blackjack.” added Barrel, and Sally raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“Where did you learn how to play those games?”

“From Oogie Boogie.” they answered together, and while Sally didn’t know much about the Boogie Man, she _had_ heard about his propensity for gambling.

“How about go-frog? Do you know how to play that one?” she asked, and the boys shook their heads. “I’ll teach you.” she said, dealing out the cards.

It felt like hours passed… they had played numerous games and eaten all the candy by the time Dr. Finkelstein wheeled back into the room and over to Shock, and Sally and the boys put down their cards and watched as he retrieved another needle full of some sort of drug and said:

“Good news, the radiographs showed no life-threatening injuries. She does have a mild concussion and some alveolar and gastrointestinal trauma, but no extensive hemorrhaging. She also sustained a mild skull fracture and cracked several ribs, but it appears there is no damage to her brain.” Lock kind of wanted to make a joke about how she already had brain damage, but he didn’t quite have the heart for it right at that moment so he decided to save it for later. “I’m going to keep her paralyzed but attempt to wake her up now that I know there is no cranial edema.” the doctor continued, and once again the children wished that he would use normal words, but as long as it was good news then they were satisfied. Dr. Finkelstein looked back at them and saw how they were just barely clinging to their seats and looking extremely anxious – it was clearly taking every ounce of self-control that they possessed to stay put, so he decided to take pity on them. “You can come over here if you like, it may comfort her to see her friends. Just don’t touch her and stay out of my way!” Lock and Barrel were off their seats in a flash and peering over the edge of the operating table, which Barrel was just barely able to rest his chin on top of. They watched as he inserted a needle into a vein in Shock’s arm and injected some sort of green liquid, and within seconds her eyes cracked open and she started to cough. A little bit of blood splattered against the clear oxygen mask as she coughed and it freaked the boys right out, but the doctor didn’t seem concerned. Once her eyes focused they darted around wildly until she saw her friends and then the doctor.

“What happened?” she mumbled, and then she looked even more terrified. “Why can’t I hear anything?!” she mumbled louder, her speech slurring a bit and she started to cry. “Why can’t I move?!”

“Ah, I was worried this may happen.” the doctor murmured. “Does she know how to read?”

“Of course she can read!” Lock said, feeling very offended on Shock’s behalf.

“She’s super smart!” piped up Barrel.

“Well, at least one of you is…” muttered the doctor, and if they hadn’t been utterly dependent on his mercy right now the boys would have tipped his wheelchair over right then and there. He took a notepad and pen out of his lab coat pocket and wrote something down and showed it to her, and she seemed to calm down a tiny bit, though she still looked incredibly afraid. He showed her several more notes and she answered yes or no to each of them, except for one:

“Everything hurts!” she moaned, tears running down her pale green face and her friends felt incredibly bad for her. Eventually the doctor seemed satisfied and leaned over to turn a crank on the wall next to where her oxygen mask was hooked up… and soon her eyes drooped closed once more.

“Why’s she falling asleep again?” Barrel asked nervously.

“I’m just putting her out for a little bit so I can repair her tympanic membranes.” When the boys looked up at him blankly he clarified: “Her ears. And you two definitely can’t be around for that, it’s a delicate operation and I don’t care how quiet and out of the way you try to be. So off with you.” He waved them away grumpily and Lock was on the verge of arguing… but then he remembered that he’d promised Jack to obey and he started to feel extremely angry with himself for making such a stupid promise without crossing his fingers. But then Sally put a hand on his and Barrel’s shoulders and guided them gently out of the room.

“Come along, you saw that she’ll be alright. And once the doctor has finished the surgery you’ll actually be able to talk with her and she’ll be able to hear you, won’t that be nice?”

“Yeah…” Lock grumbled. “Then we can tell her that she screwed up on her stupid bomb.”

Sally held in a chuckle. “I think she probably knows that by now, Lock.”

 

Sally had her hands full keeping the two little trick-or-treaters occupied. First she fed them an enormous lunch and the massive amounts of food combined with all the stress they’d been under that day made them quite sleepy, so she led them upstairs and put them both on her bed for a nap. When they woke up they were extremely hyper – way too hyper to sit and play cards quietly – so Sally had to get creative. First she let them race one another up and down the entire ramp from the second-to-the-top floor to the bottom of the lab, but it wasn’t much of a race since Lock was much faster than Barrel. She was a little worried that they might tumble all the way down it and both of them did trip a few times… but clearly they were very tough and they just laughed at one another when it happened and kept going so she relaxed a little. After it became clear that Barrel didn’t have a chance at winning a race she got a stopwatch and timed them so they could try to beat their own personal best. After they had thoroughly exhausted themselves – at least for the moment – she took them back to her sewing room and found some scraps of fabric and handed them each a seam ripper, which they used to shred the fabric to bits. Then she grabbed two pillowcases and her travel sewing kit and took the boys outside to let them make mud pies, and soon they were slinging mud at one another instead. Sally had been expecting this so while they were getting absolutely filthy she sat on the steps and made rough little tunics out of the pillowcases so they would have something to wear while she washed the mud off of their costumes. Then Barrel took a direct hit of mud to the face so he tackled Lock and pushed his face right into the ground, which started a much more violent fight that Sally then attempted to break up – but between her unsteady bearing and the boys’ roughness she ended up slipping and falling in the mud as well. That at least stopped the fight, however, because then Lock and Barrel pointed and laughed at her instead and Sally had to laugh as well. Despite it being absolutely ridiculous she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun and she actually threw a few handfuls of mud back at the children, which sent them into hysterical peals of laughter – they’d never had a grown-up actually want to play with them like this before.

After it didn’t seem like any of them could get any dirtier they finally went running back inside, leaving muddy little foot and handprints all through the laboratory until Sally finally managed to direct them up to the bathroom. While she got a bath going the boys started snapping one another with towels, getting those muddy as well.

“Alright, who’s going first?” she asked, making a grab for each of their weaponized towels.

“Not me!” they said in unison, and Sally couldn’t help but chuckle a little. They settled the matter through a game of rock, paper, scissors and Lock had to go first.

“FINE, get out of here!” he pouted, and Sally left his makeshift tunic on the toilet and fetched him a new towel out of the cupboard before ushering Barrel out of the room before he could get mud on them. She got the little ghoul a pencil and paper so he could draw while they waited in the hallway for Lock to finish his bath. It was really taking Lock much longer than Sally was expecting considering how reluctant he’d been to take one, and she was about to knock on the door to check on him but Barrel said casually:

“He always takes forever. It takes him a hundred years to do his stupid hair.”

“I heard that!” Lock yelled from the bathroom and he flung open the door. Barrel immediately started giggling because Lock looked so stupid in the nearly ankle-length pillowcase and Lock frowned at his cohort, but at least he knew Barrel had to wear one, too. While they waited for Barrel and Lock drew pictures of the bomb exploding in Shock’s face, Sally began to worry about how to occupy them while she cleaned up herself and she could only hope that Dr. Finkelstein was finished fixing Shock’s ears and that he could keep an eye on the trick-or-treaters while she snuck a quick bath and hurriedly washed and dried the boys’ costumes.

Fortunately that was indeed the case. When they poked their heads into the operating room they found Shock awake, wearing a neck brace and a bandage around her head with a lot of padding at the back of her skull and band-aids all over the cuts on her face. The doctor begrudgingly agreed to keep an eye on them for a few minutes and now that Shock could hear again the boys wasted no time in telling her what an idiot she was.

“I can’t believe you messed up the bomb! You always think you’re so smart, but you’re just as dumb as Barrel!” Lock sneered.

“I’m not dumb!” Barrel frowned, but Lock ignored him.

Shock glared at her middle cohort and snarled, “Shut up, I’d like to see you make anything! All you can do is hurt yourself!” She was in a lot of pain and she was still quite tired, but the doctor had just given her some sort of injection and she felt sort of okay at the moment – certainly well enough to fight with Lock.

“Look who’s talking! You just about blew yourself up!” he taunted, and Shock had to admit to herself that he had a point this time.

“Well, at least I still blew up the Mayor’s toilet! So mission accomplished!”

Lock and Barrel had forgotten about that and suddenly all three of them were laughing together about how hilarious that was, and their only regret was that they didn’t get to see how upset he’d been upon discovering the damage.

 

Jack returned to the laboratory just before dinnertime to see how everything was going. By then Shock felt okay enough to be moved off of the operating table so Jack very gently picked her up and carried her to Sally’s bed – Sally would just sleep on the floor with the boys that night. They all ate in the bedroom together and Sally could barely keep her food down from all of the moths fluttering around in her stomach at having Jack in her bedroom and eating the soup she had made. He was very complimentary of her cooking and it took monumental effort for her to keep from blushing. Shock managed to eat a little bit even though her stomach was still rather painful – just about everything was painful, actually. “I gotta go to the bathroom.” she said after she’d finished her soup, and the boys giggled because bodily functions were always hilarious. Sally helped her to the bathroom next door and after a moment they heard Shock shriek, “I’m crapping blood!” and Lock and Barrel started laughing.

“Gross!” Lock said delightedly and Barrel laughed even harder, completely undeterred by Jack’s disapproving look.

“It’s okay, Shock, Dr. Finkelstein told me that might happen. Your stomach got hurt a little bit but you’re alright, really.” Sally reassured her from just outside the bathroom door, and Shock felt extremely embarrassed that she’d yelled that loud enough for Jack and her cohorts to hear, but had been truly scary in the moment.

“Shut up!” she screamed as Sally helped her back to the room and Jack put her back into bed, and she wished she had the strength and wasn’t too sore to beat them both up. “Just wait till I feel better, I’m gonna punch both of you in the gut so hard that you crap blood, too!” she hissed at them, but the boys only laughed harder.

Jack noticed how exhausted Sally looked and he had seen the mud all over the laboratory floor and walls. He could only imagine what Lock and Barrel had put her through, so he made a decision: “Lock, Barrel. Why don’t you two come stay with me for the evening. It’s much closer than going all the way back to your treehouse.” It wasn’t a question or an optional invitation, but Lock wasn’t going down without a fight.

“Aww, do we have to? We wanna stay here with blood-butt!” he snickered and Shock found the energy to throw her spoon at him.

“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Jack said sternly.

“Jack, it’s alright. They can stay here, I don’t mind.” Sally said, though deep inside she had to admit she would be grateful for the break. If today had taught her anything, it was that there _was_ such a thing as too much company. “You must be far too busy.”

“Not at all, your time is just as valuable as mine!” he smiled at her, and while Sally personally didn’t feel that was true at all, it was still a kind thing for him to say. He was the Pumpkin King and she was just some cranky old man’s creation and servant. There was nothing valuable about her time, she thought somewhat sadly.

After several more minutes of whining Jack had to make a very scary face to get Lock and Barrel to comply, and as they trudged behind him out the door Lock looked back at Shock one last time and called, “See you later, blood-butt!” He and Barrel laughed raucously at her furious expression and Jack sighed, beginning to wonder what he’d just gotten himself into.

 


	8. Hide-And-Seek

"You call that a hiding place?" Shock gloated, looking up from the ground into the tall tree where Lock was hidden amongst the huge orange and brown leaves. "I can see your tail sticking out!"

"What?!" he called down. "No you can't! Can you?" He simply couldn't believe that his tail would have given him away because tucking it close to his body was second nature to him when it came to playing hide-and-seek. Surely something else must have caught her eye.

"Well, I see _something_ stupid and red up there!" she taunted him as he started climbing back down the tree with a frown on his face. "And the only stupid and red thing I know is you, so…"

"Let's see how well _you_ can hide! There isn't a tree in the whole world big enough to hide your huge honkin' nose!" he taunted right back, but he really should have known by now that making fun of the size of her nose really didn't bother her, it was just part of being a witch. Whoever heard of a witch with a small nose?

"Whatever, stupid. It's not my fault you can't hide good." she smirked over her shoulder as she went back to hunting for her littlest cohort.

"You just got lucky that time!" Lock said bitterly as he followed her between the trees and tombstones but Shock ignored him, keeping her eyes peeled for something little and round and grey with green hair and a white face. At last she caught a glimpse of a pale green, three-toed foot sticking out from behind a headstone so she ever-so-slowly crept quietly up to it and Lock grinned when he realized what she was doing.

"GOTCHA!" she shouted, popping her head over the top of the headstone and Barrel jumped in surprise and started giggling.

"I win!" he said happily as he stood up from his hiding place, and Lock huffed irritably a bit. He hated being found first.

"Good job pipsqueak!" Shock congratulated him, and then she turned to Lock. "Okay, you're it! And no peeking!"

"Yeah, yeah…" he grumbled, then closed his eyes tightly and began counting to twenty as his cohorts scurried off to hide. As he stood there counting and feeling rather annoyed he suddenly had a brilliant idea that would hopefully take Barrel down a notch… he only hoped the little ghoul would fall for it. Barrel was pretty gullible, so Lock thought the odds were fairly good. "Ready or not, here I come!" he shouted when he reached twenty, then opened his eyes and peered around for any indication of where his friends might have gone. His eyesight was quite good, but that didn't help him find someone who was completely hidden. When he didn't see anything obvious he picked a direction and called loudly, "Are you hiding?" and to his utterly devious delight he heard Barrel's faint voice respond:

"Yeah!"

Bingo. That moron was actually going to give himself away and Lock headed towards the sound of his voice. "Are you sure?" he called again, snickering quietly to himself.

"Yeah!" came the reply once more, sounding a little bit closer this time.

"You hidden good?"

"Yeah, really good!"

At the sound of this exchange Shock slapped a hand to her forehead from inside the mausoleum where she was hiding. Leave it to Lock to come up with a trick like that, and leave it to Barrel to fall for it. But it was pretty funny. Poor Barrel was hopelessly trusting and gullible and sometimes it was just too easy to get him to do stupid things for her, Lock and Oogie Boogie's entertainment. Nearly every time they ate with the Boogie Man he would point to a far corner of the room and in a fake tone of surprise tell Barrel to look and see, and when the little ghoul turned his head Oogie would snatch his dessert away and hide it beneath the table. She and Lock would giggle as Barrel turned back to the table after seeing nothing unusual where Oogie had pointed… and then he would stare blankly at where his dessert should have been, clearly wondering how it had disappeared. Oogie always gave it back to him before he got too upset so it wasn't _that_ mean… but Barrel fell for it every single time.

Then she heard Lock right outside of the mausoleum and she held her breath… but he was clearly too focused on locating Barrel instead. "Okay!" he called again, unable to keep the wide, wicked grin off of his face. "I'm coming to find you guys, are you sure you're ready?"

"Yeah, I already told you!" Barrel said once more, now starting to sound a little annoyed, and Shock sighed quietly to herself. This was going to be a quick game.

By this time Barrel had given Lock enough clues that he was pretty sure where to find him. He headed towards a large pile of boulders covered in slimy green moss and poisonous toadstools near the edge of the forest where his cohort's voice seemed to originate, and he peeked around each boulder until he spotted his target. Anyone with less-keen eyes than himself might have missed the little ghoul because he blended in amongst the rocks and moss so well, but he stood out clear as day to Lock. "Gotcha!" he yelled triumphantly, and he couldn't care less that he had cheated. A win was a win, no matter how it was achieved.

"Aw, man, how'd you find me so fast?" Barrel said as he got up off of the ground, and Shock couldn't take it anymore.

"You led him right to you, you moron!" she yelled, flinging open the mausoleum doors and stomping towards them. Barrel looked at her blankly so she clarified: "He followed the sound of your voice, dummy!"

Barrel's confused face transformed into realization, and then into anger. "Hey! That's not fair!" he shouted, but Lock only smiled wickedly.

"It's not my fault you're as dumb as this boulder here." he smirked, and this insult plus the humiliation of falling for that rotten little devil's trick was too much for Barrel to let slide. He suddenly rushed forward like a linebacker and head-butted Lock right in the stomach, knocking him onto the ground, then he sat on Lock's chest and started trying to shove fistfuls of dirt into his mouth. Lock spluttered and started punching Barrel as hard as he could, but Barrel was tougher than he looked and could take quite a walloping, especially when he was angry. Shock watched them fight for awhile, and she wasn't really in the mood to join in because she was feeling annoyed that she'd just given up what she thought had been a pretty good hiding spot. She let them get on with their spat until she thought up another good place to hide, then she walked over and kicked Barrel in the rear end without warning, causing him to fall forward and knock foreheads with Lock.

"Ow!" they both yelped and rubbed their foreheads, and while her assault had effectively ended their fight, things didn't quite go as she'd planned after that. Instead of continuing with their game of hide-and-seek Lock kicked out and tripped her, and she shrieked as she fell to the ground and both boys scrambled over to start wrestling with her instead. There was no way she could take on both of them at the same time and before long Lock was sitting on her chest and grabbing her ears while Barrel got hold of both of her hands.

"I say you have to be it again!" Lock taunted, then he looked at Barrel. "What do you think?"

"Yeah!" Barrel grinned, completely forgetting that he was supposed to be mad at Lock.

But Shock wasn't going down without a fight. "Okay, I give up!" she lied, and as soon as they all got to their feet and she'd brushed the dirt off of her dress, she suddenly shoved Lock as hard as she could with one hand and yelled, "TAG, YOU'RE IT!" before tearing off running as fast as she could.

"HEY!" he shouted, but he was grinning as he took off after her, and Barrel giggled and took off the other direction. Tag was just as fun as hide-and-seek, and at least he was pretty sure there was no way his cohorts could trick him into losing at it.


	9. Valentine's Day Town

“Why do we have to start with this one?” Lock complained.  
  
“We have to start somewhere, so why not this one?” Shock said.  
  
“Because it looks stupid.” he sneered.  
  
“Yeah, what even is this?” asked Barrel as he ran his hands over the rough, pink-painted bark of the carved holiday door in question. The children had never seen a heart before - at least not a stylized one like this.  
  
“Who cares?” Shock said irritably. “Whatever it is, it’s something different, so let’s check it out and see what we can wreck there.”  
  
“Why can’t we start with the firecracker one?” Lock complained again.  
  
Shock frowned at him. Apparently she was the only one of them who grasped the concept of _‘delayed gratification’_. “Because we should save the best for last, dummy! And this way we’ll be experts at going to other worlds by the time we get there.”  
  
“Ugh, you’re just as boring as this dumb door…” Lock rolled his eyes, but followed her over to it anyway. Shock stepped up onto the round box wrapped in pink and white striped paper that served as the step, then turned the shiny gold handle and pulled the door open. They all three peered down inside, but just like Christmas Town and Easter Town, they saw only darkness. “This is going to be the worst place ever. I’m staying here, you two go have fun in the most boring holiday of all time.” grumbled Lock, though he really had no way of knowing how boring or not-boring this place would be.  
  
Shock gave Barrel a significant look and nodded her head towards Lock. Barrel immediately picked up on her clue and together they suddenly shoved their middle cohort right through the door. “Oh no you’re not! You’re coming with us!” Shock shouted down after him as he shrieked and cursed as he fell out of sight, and she and Barrel laughed before jumping in as well.

 

They spiraled down through the darkness that gradually gave way to a pinkish white light below and eventually landed gently on a soft, fluffy white cloud, then they bounced gently off of that into a field absolutely filled with thornless red roses and pink and red carnations.  
“More flowers!” groaned Barrel. This place was even worse than Easter Town, and all three trick-or-treaters were glad that they’d taken their anti-allergy potion from Sally before venturing into this door or surely they’d all be sick for a month. The air smelled of roses and sickly perfume, but Barrel’s keen nose also detected something else… “I smell chocolate. Do you guys smell chocolate?” He sniffed the air as he looked around, then spotted what appeared to be the main town - which also seemed to be where the chocolatey aroma was coming from.  
  
“Yeah, I smell it, too.” said Shock, looking over at the distant town. It seemed to be comprised of white buildings and pillars of various sizes, with lots of what she assumed were more rose bushes scattered throughout and lots of fluffy clouds all around it.  
  
“Let’s go check it out!” said Lock, deciding that just maybe this world wouldn’t be 100% worthless and disgusting if there was candy here. They crouched low in the flowery field and headed the direction of the white buildings, and after awhile they saw their first creature: pairs of little white birds with soft-looking feathers flying and floating through the air together in a sort of romantic-looking dance, and the children were thoroughly repulsed. The little birds made a gentle cooing sort of sound and one pair made the mistake of fluttering down to circle around the trick-or-treaters heads. Lock reached out to grab one and managed to pull out a few tail feathers, which sent the little doves soaring back into the sky once more.  
  
“I hope you don’t get sick from touching that thing…” Shock said, eyeing him cautiously, but Lock felt confident that Sally’s potion would prevent anything like that - after all, it had worked great the other times they had taken it. They reached two very tall, golden poles with very intricate floral carvings and a pink banner hanging between them that seemed to be the entrance to the town. “Valentine’s Day Town?” Shock attempted to pronounce the strange word, and the boys took her word for it since that was still a tiny bit above their reading levels. Then they saw the shadows of something swoosh through the air above their heads and they ducked behind a tall, white, marble pillar nearby. When it seemed like the coast was clear, they poked their little heads out from behind the pillar and took in the sight of Valentine’s Day Town: it was a lush garden constructed of white marble with crystal-blue reflecting pools and fountains, rose bushes, golden filigree decorations and lots and lots of the same heart symbol as the door to this world. There were tile mosaics of those hearts, doves, flowers and other similarly disgusting things… and worst of all, there were paintings and white marble statues of couples kissing, caressing and holding one another, and the children felt like throwing up.  
  
“I _told_ you this would be the worst holiday ever!” Lock hissed in Shock’s ear, and unfortunately she had to agree with him. They crept through the garden, hiding behind those sculptures and roses while little pairs of doves and lovebirds flitted about snuggling and cooing together. Barrel was about to pull out his slingshot to try and hit some, but then he saw something else, something even better than hitting ugly little birds: candy.  
  
“Look!” he squealed excitedly, elbowing Shock in the arm and pointing to some white marble steps leading down to one of the pools, and she saw neatly arranged boxes of chocolates all over the stairs. There were also cute little stuffed teddy bears in whites, pinks and reds but the children ignored them, too focused on swiping some of those delicious-smelling chocolates.  
  
“I’m gonna go for it, keep watch!” said Lock, but before he could even take one step in that direction they saw what had swooped over their heads earlier: two little human-looking creatures with blonde hair and white feathery wings, wearing little white garments that sort of looked like diapers, and the trio snickered to themselves because they looked so stupid. They were chubby and childlike with rosy pink cheeks and they were laughing and chatting together while holding hands before they flew down to land on the steps and dip their toes in the pool. Lock was frustrated that their plot to swipe the candy had been derailed, but the creatures looked pretty wimpy to him so he thought he could take them. “I bet I can beat the crap outta those things.” he murmured, but Shock grabbed his arm before he could try.  
  
“They have bows and arrows, dummy! Are you blind?” she hissed, and Lock was embarrassed that he hadn’t even noticed that they did indeed have a golden bow draped across each of their backs and little quivers filled with golden arrows.  
  
“You’re the blind one!” he snapped back, but Shock ignored him.  
  
“We need some sort of diversion.” she whispered and wracked her brain for an idea, for she wanted those chocolates just as bad as the other two did.  
  
“Let’s throw Barrel in the pool!” snickered Lock, and Barrel shrunk back because he was afraid they might actually do it, but lucky for him Shock had a better idea. She pulled three little round things with wicks out of her pocket, and her cohorts grinned in wicked excitement.  
“You brought cherry bombs!” exclaimed Lock, rubbing his hands together gleefully.  
  
“That’s right!” she smiled deviously, and held out her hand. “Gimmie some matches.” she said, because he pretty much always carried some with him, along with his trusty lock picking set.  
  
“Why do you get to do it?” he frowned, and a somewhat lengthy argument ensued over who got to set up the explosives. Finally Barrel got impatient with their bickering and in a rare move of pushiness he snatched the fireworks and matches right out of their hands. He was tired of waiting to get that chocolate.  
  
“I’ll do it since you two can’t make up your minds!” he snapped, and normally the other two would have beaten him up for daring to do such a thing, but then they decided that was probably the best way to end the argument and get on with their heist.  
  
“Okay, fine!” whispered Shock. “Go blow up one of those kissy-kissy statues over there, far enough away that those dumb little diaper kids will have to fly a long way to go see. Then me and Lock will go grab a bunch of candy and meet you back here, got it?”  
  
Barrel nodded and snuck away from them, keeping close to the walls and pillars and ducking beneath the bushes, trying to be stealthy. Lock and Shock kept their eyes on the prize while they waited - the two little diaper kids had opened a box of chocolates and were now popping bon-bons into one another mouths and giggling together, and Lock put his finger in his mouth to make a gagging gesture and Shock giggled. Before too long there was an absolutely enormous ‘BOOM!’, followed by two more, and the explosions were so powerful that they made little waves in the pools and a few statues and large vases full of flowers fell over. All of the birds that had been sitting on the bushes and fountains took to the air and the two little diaper kids looked up in alarm before staring at one another for a moment. Then they took off flying in the direction of the noise, pulling their bows from their backs and each loading up an arrow, and after they passed by Lock and Shock made a break for the coveted chocolates. They each grabbed as many of the red heart-shaped boxes as they could carry before running back the way they came, but Lock took just enough time to kick the diaper kids’ open box of chocolates into the pool with a wicked smirk. They ran as fast as they could towards the edge of town and saw Barrel’s face poking out from behind a fallen marble column, grinning widely at the sight of all the boxes in his cohort’s hands… but then his expression changed from excitement to terror.  
  
“Watch out!” he cried out to them from behind his hiding place, but it was too late: a small golden arrow hit each of them right in their rear ends, causing them both to yelp in surprise - but oddly enough the arrows didn’t hurt too much, merely a sharp, startling prick as if they’d been snapped by a rubber band, and then the discomfort was gone.  
  
“We’re under attack!” Lock yelled, grabbing Shock by her arm and pulling her beneath an enormous rose bush to hide, dropping half of his chocolates in the process, but fortunately no more arrows came at them.  
  
“Good job, moron, you got us shot!” Shock hissed as she pulled the arrow out of her rear and tossed it aside, but then she looked right at him and a weird, funny feeling washed over her.  
  
“Whatever, it didn’t even hurt, you’re such a wi-…” Lock stopped mid-sentence and paused with his hand around the golden arrow in his backside when he looked at her, and he suddenly felt warm and weird all over. “-mp.” he finished as he finally pulled out the arrow, and he had no idea why his face felt so hot. “Uh… are you okay?” he asked sheepishly.  
  
“I think so…” Shock said uncertainly, utterly perplexed by his question. Since when did Lock care if she sustained such a minor injury? “Are you?” she asked back, and she had no idea why she cared about him, either, nor why she felt like her heart might flutter right out of her chest.  
  
“Yeah, I think so. It didn’t really hurt much.” he replied, staring into her coal-black eyes and all of a sudden he realized that she was rather pretty. How had he not noticed before how nice her sickly green skin looked, or how much he liked her dark, wild hair? And how her nose that he usually liked to make fun of had such a pleasing, witchy shape to it?  
  
Shock was having similarly alarming thoughts as she gazed into his yellow eyes. How had she never noticed how nice they were? Or how much she liked his styled-up hair that she usually enjoyed making fun of him for being so fussy about? And how the sharp points of his nose and chin gave him such an attractive, devilish look? All of a sudden she realized that he was rather cute, and she was struck with a bizarre and overpowering urge to kiss him, but instead she just took hold of his hand. “Thanks for pulling me under here so we wouldn’t get shot anymore.” she said shyly.  
  
“You’re welcome.” Lock said just as shyly, and before he could stop himself he leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. He pulled away from her, blushing fiercely and worried that she would punch him for kissing her… but instead she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek right back. When she pulled away he saw that she was blushing too, and he was just about to lean in to give her another kiss when suddenly Barrel was under the bush with them. He had waited and watched from his hiding place until the little flying children had flown away, and when no more arrows seemed to be coming he scurried over to his cohorts as low to the ground as he could get to make sure they were alright.  
  
“Are you okay?” he asked them, not yet noticing their hands clasped together.  
  
“Yeah…” they both answered in rather dreamy voices, still gazing into each others eyes.  
  
“Really? You got shot in the butt!” Barrel exclaimed, but then he realized they were looking at one another in a very, very strange way. “Uh… guys?” he asked uncertainly, but they didn’t pay any attention to him, they were too busy staring at each other with what could only be described as goo-goo eyes. They’d seen Jack and Sally look at one another like that before but Barrel was completely and utterly perplexed to see his friends looking at one another the same way, and he wondered if they were playing some sort of joke on him.  
  
“You’re really pretty. And really smart, way smarter than me.” Lock said, staring at Shock adoringly.  
  
“Thanks. You’re really brave and tough. And really, really cute.” Shock said back, completely enraptured, and Barrel wasn’t sure whether to laugh, vomit or panic. What in the world was going on? Lock and Shock were usually at each other’s throats nearly 24-7, so why were they acting so lovey-dovey with each other now? Out of all the scary things that Barrel had ever been through, this was the scariest. Scarier than when Lock got his tail chopped off. Scarier than when Shock nearly blew herself up with that failed time bomb she made. Scarier than the time he himself had fallen out of that tree and fractured his arm. Even scarier than that time Oogie had beaten Lock so bad he passed out. Living with them if they were always going to be talking to each other like this would be intolerable! He’d have to move out and live on the streets or something. But then it got even worse: suddenly his cohorts leaned in and kissed each other right on the lips and Barrel’s jaw nearly hit the ground. This definitely wasn’t a joke.  
  
“WE’RE LEAVING NOW!” he yelled in horror, yanking both of their free hands and their lips pulled apart with a disgusting ‘smack’ and he frantically dragged them along towards the holiday doors, completely forgetting about the chocolate. This was an emergency and Barrel was desperately thinking about what to do as they ran through the flower field… he could only hope that somehow Dr. Finkelstein or the grown-up witches could fix it, or Jack, or Sally, or _anybody_. Lock and Shock stumbled several times on their way to the doors because they weren’t looking where they were going, they were still gazing at one another with those horrible lovey-dovey expressions as if there was nothing in the universe except each other. Barrel flung open the Jack-o-Lantern door and pushed them both in, and they hardly seemed to notice or care that he’d just shoved them. Then he jumped in after them, hoping against hope that their terrible condition could be fixed.

They landed gently in the middle of the ring of trees in their own world and Barrel found Lock and Shock sitting next to each other on the ground with rather stunned expressions on their faces. Barrel watched them cautiously for a moment, holding his breath and bracing himself for more kissing, but then his cohort’s eyes widened in absolute horror as the effects of those little golden arrows wore off.  
  
“Holy crap…” Shock said as she brought her hands to her mouth, remembering the feeling of Lock’s lips and feeling like she wanted to barf.  
  
“That was the most disgusting thing that has ever happened, ever, EVER!” Lock said angrily as he roughly scrubbed his face with his sleeve until his white skin was pink and his blue lips were purple. What had he been thinking? How could he ever have thought she was pretty, and even worse, how could he have kissed her and let her kiss him back? It was just too repulsive to think about.  
  
“You’re telling me! I’m gonna have to take a bath in boiling bleach just to get your gross boy cooties off of me!” Shock said in a tone of utmost revulsion as she got to her feet. What had she been thinking? She couldn’t believe she’d let Lock’s horrible lips touch her, and even worse, that she’d touched his annoying - and definitely not cute! - face with her own.  
  
“Well I’m gonna be puking for weeks because of your nasty girl cooties, so there!” Lock fired back as he got to his feet as well, and Shock was about to retort but then they both noticed that Barrel was giggling at them.  
  
“I can’t believe you guys kissed, that’s soooo grooooss!” he said happily. Now that he knew it wasn’t permanent, it was truly the most hilarious thing he had witnessed in a good long while.  
  
“SHUT UP, BARREL!” they both yelled at him, their cheeks going red.  
  
“And you held hands, too!” Barrel squealed in delight, now laughing even harder. It wasn’t often that he got to embarrass his two older cohorts, and now he got to do it to them both at the same time. It was too good not to savor.  
  
“Shut it, midget, or I’m gonna punch your lights out!” Lock snarled, baring his teeth and balling his fists, and Shock was fully prepared to help him.  
  
“Shock and Lock, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-….” Barrel singsonged, but that’s as far as he got because Lock made good on his threat and clocked him right in the face. Barrel stopped laughing for only a moment because it hurt, but then he started laughing again because the hilarity outweighed the pain and he continued his teasing. “N-G! First comes love, then comes marriage…”  
  
“Then comes my foot up your butt!” Shock yelled, and she was so mad that she actually tackled him. Lock dog-piled onto both of them, but then realized that he didn’t want to touch Shock again for as long as he lived so he quickly rolled back off again and let her deal with punishing that stupid little ghoul. Shock wasn’t satisfied until she’d given Barrel two black eyes and a puffy lip, and she finally got off of him when he promised not to tease them anymore… though Barrel decided that he didn’t even need to cross his fingers to break this promise later, because making fun of them for kissing and holding hands would give him ammunition for months.

 

“We can’t go back to that place, no matter how much chocolate is there!” Lock said firmly as they walked back towards home.  
  
“We must have been under some sort of spell… there had to be some sort of love potion on those arrows or something.” said Shock, trying to make sense of what had happened. She couldn’t make spells or magic potions herself, but she knew enough about them to imagine that such a thing existed. “It had to be that. There’s no way I’d kiss your dumb, gross face without something like that.”  
  
Lock was about to argue back that her face was dumber and grosser than his, but then Barrel interrupted: “Yeah right, I bet you totally wanted to kiss before you got a magic arrow in your butt…” he snickered, quickly holding his hands up to his face in a defensive gesture in case one of them punched him for making fun of them again, but Shock hit him in the gut instead and he wheezed and doubled over. It was still worth it, he thought, but then Lock came over and karate-chopped him hard in the back and Barrel fell to the ground, now thinking that maybe he actually should stop teasing them for the time being if he wanted to get home in one piece.  
  
The trek back home was awkwardly quiet, with Lock and Shock keeping as far away from each other as they could on the narrow path and Barrel trying his hardest to hold in his giggles as he trailed along behind them. When they reached their treehouse Lock and Shock drew straws to decide who got to use the bath to wash each others disgusting cooties off first. Barrel grabbed some crayons and paper to draw pictures of them kissing with lots of those little heart symbols all around them until Lock saw and forced him to tear up the drawing and throw it in the oven, giving him a few more punches for good measure. When Lock and Shock had both finished scrubbing themselves as clean as possible, another distraction was desperately needed.  
  
“Let’s go spray-paint some swear words on the Mayor’s house.” Lock suggested, eager to get back to their normal activities.  
  
“Good idea.” said Shock, and she pulled out the cans of paint that Oogie Boogie had given them from the trunk in the corner.  
  
Barrel just grinned and didn’t say anything as they headed for the cage elevator. Even though he was pretty beat up, he wasn’t done teasing them quite yet. He knew what he was going to spray paint on the Mayor’s house, and it definitely wasn’t swear words.


	10. Valentine's Day Town - bonus/alternate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Extended/Alternative ending to the previous chapter, just for fun. Starting from when the trio arrive back in Halloween Town after the Valentine’s Day Town fiasco.

They landed gently in the middle of the ring of trees in their own world and Barrel found Lock and Shock sitting next to each other on the ground. He watched them cautiously for a moment, holding his breath and bracing himself for more kissing… and while at least they didn’t kiss, their condition did not seem to have improved. “Are you okay?” Lock asked anxiously, scrambling over to grab Shock’s hand once more.

“Yeah, are you?” she said just as anxiously, holding out her hand to receive his, and even though they never got hurt when they went through the doors Barrel felt a tiny bit annoyed that nobody asked him if he was alright.

“Who cares?!” he shouted. After all, nobody hurt each other more than the two of them did, so for them to suddenly be concerned about the other being hurt was ridiculous.

Lock whipped his head around and gave Barrel an angry look. “I care!” he snapped as he helped Shock off the ground, and she let him do it even though she really didn’t need any help. Normally she would have tried to punch him in the throat for treating her like she was weak, but something about it just seemed so romantic this time… her knight in a red shirt and pants.

“What is wrong with you two!?” Barrel said, clutching his head and fighting the urge to tear his own hair out. What was he going to do? They were getting more and more disgusting by the second and he was already thinking about which ditches or dumpsters in town would be the most comfortable for him to set up residence in.

“You’re just jealous ‘cus you don’t have a girlfriend!” Lock said snottily as he pulled Shock closer to him in a rather possessive manner. He hoped that she wouldn’t be mad that he’d just said that, but wasn’t that was kissing meant? That they were boyfriend and girlfriend now? Fortunately she didn’t seem to mind, she was just gazing at him dreamily for a moment and his heart beat a little bit quicker before she tore her eyes away and said to Barrel:

“Nothing’s wrong, everything is perfect. Why are you even asking? Is it because we dropped the chocolates?” Even though she felt like the happiest witch in Halloween Town right now, she had to admit that the one thing that could make today better would be candy. “We should go back and get them!” she said, heading towards the Valentine’s Day door and Lock followed along behind her like a lovesick puppy.

Barrel stared at them, at a complete loss for words. There was no way they could still be faking and suddenly he wondered if maybe they ate some of the chocolates without him seeing, and that maybe the chocolates were what was making them act like this. “NO!” he shouted, and threw his body in front of the door with his arms spread out so she couldn’t get to it. “I think you guys have been poisoned or bewitched or something!”

“Definitely bewitched.” Lock said with a big goofy grin, and Shock batted her eyelashes shyly at him.

“I’m serious!” Barrel shouted again, trying to ignore the corniness of what Lock had just said and Shock’s disgusting reaction to it. “There’s something the matter with you, we have to go get help before you kiss again!”

“Oh, you mean like this?” Shock said wickedly, and she smooched Lock right on the tip of his pointed nose.

“Or like this?” Lock snickered as he kissed her on the nose right back.

“Stop it!” Barrel shrieked, now seriously afraid of losing his lunch right there, and his cohorts laughed.

“C’mon, outta the way, pipsqueak.” said Lock, moving to shove Barrel aside. “Let’s go get those chocolates.” He wanted to take turns popping them in one another’s mouths with Shock like they’d seen those little blond diaper kids doing, and he blushed a little bit more at that thought.

Barrel clung to the door like his life depended on it, trying to figure out what to do before they could pry him away from it. He wasn’t good at thinking up ideas like Lock or planning them out like Shock, he just followed along. But now his cohorts were clearly incapacitated and it was up to him to help them somehow. They didn’t seem to think anything was wrong and that it was perfectly safe to go back to that awful world, and no amount of his insisting it was dangerous would convince them. He was going to have to be clever like Shock and persuasive like Lock.

“Wait!” he cried, thinking fast. “Uh… we should go back to town and tell everyone that you guys are boyfriend and girlfriend now!” Lock and Shock looked at one another for a moment, letting those wonderful words sink in, and then turned back to their littlest cohort.

“Why? You know everybody hates us, no one will care.” said Shock.

“Jack will! Sally will, too!” insisted Barrel, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice. “You know they like love stuff, you should tell them the good news!” Lock and Shock paused at that… it was true that the happiest couple they knew in Halloween Town was Jack and Sally, plus they were the ones who liked the trio the most and always said they cared about them… so perhaps they would indeed like to know the good news. Plus, maybe they would have some good tips on being boyfriend and girlfriend, since neither Lock nor Shock really knew anything about it. “Maybe they’ll throw you a party!” Barrel said, laying on the motivation even thicker and praying to the Halloween gods that they would go for it. Anything to keep them from going back to that evil - and not in a good way - place.

“Yeah, that’s a pretty good idea, actually.” agreed Lock, for he suddenly wanted to crow about his new relationship status from every rooftop in Halloween Town. As far as he knew none of the other kids his age had girlfriends yet - especially not ones as pretty as Shock - so it would feel great to rub it in all of their pathetic loser faces.

“Okay, that sounds fun.” said Shock. If Lock thought it was a good idea, then she would go along with it. He always had the best ideas, she thought dreamily, conveniently ignoring the many, many terrible ideas he also came up with.

Barrel exhaled in relief and relaxed against the door, hardly able to believe that his idea had worked. The walk to town was excruciating - Barrel led the way as quickly as he could but his cohorts trailed along slowly behind him, holding hands and giving each other compliments that they never, ever would have said normally.

“Remember that time you cut the stitches out of that corpse kid’s grody eyeballs so perfectly? And that time you baked that exploding cake and put it out at the solstice party and everyone freaked out and got cake all over them?” Lock said, and Shock giggled a bit at the memory. “Or when you read about how to build that catapult and we shot rotten pumpkins all over the town hall? You’re so smart and good at everything.” he continued, admiration dripping from his every word.

Shock could hardly believe that he was saying all this - usually he was calling her a nerd and an annoying know-it-all, not complimenting her brains and talents. “Not at everything…” she said bashfully. “You’re really good at running and climbing and stuff, and you can punch really hard. Remember that time you knocked out a bunch of Gustov’s teeth?” Lock grinned because he remembered that very well, and also because she’d never complimented him on his physical prowess before - usually she was calling him an idiotic show-off. “Or when you jumped off the roof and pulled the axe out of Behemoth’s head? You’re so brave.” she sighed, but then her expression turned a bit more serious. “Like when you told Oogie Boogie to stop strangling me that one time.” she said quietly. She still felt extremely guilty about that way down deep inside.

Lock looked shyly down at the ground and mumbled, “It wasn’t that bad.” That was an enormous lie because he’d never been beaten so severely in his entire life, but right at that moment he felt like he meant it. “Anyway, it was worth it. You made me my favorite food after that.”

“You didn’t even eat it!” Barrel yelled from in front of them. He’d been trying his hardest to tune them out, but it just wasn’t working. Finally he stuck his fingers in his ears. Why weren’t they at Jack’s house yet?

“You’re so good at cooking.” Lock continued, ignoring Barrel’s outburst. “And everything else. Like when you helped me after my tail got cut off… Jack told me you tied the end of it so it wouldn’t bleed so much.” He really was grateful for her quick thinking during that awful incident and he shuddered to think that maybe he could have bled out right there in the street if she hadn’t known what to do.

“I’m just glad Dr. Finkelstein could put it back on. Your tail is cool.” she giggled, and Lock thought he would die of pride and embarrassment at such a compliment.

“Thanks!” he grinned, bringing it up to pat her awkwardly on the back - usually if he ever touched her with his tail it was to slap her with it.

  
Mercifully for Barrel, they had finally reached the gate to Jack’s house, but then Shock and Lock decided they’d better have one more kiss just in case Jack didn’t approve. Barrel dragged his fingers down his face in agony while they locked lips for far too long, so he went up the stairs by himself and jumped as high as he could until he managed to grab ahold of the doorbell pull, praying that Jack was home and could help. Luckily, the Pumpkin King was indeed at home and by the time he opened the door to greet the trick-or-treaters Lock and Shock had joined Barrel on the front steps, still holding hands.

“Why hello, you three! What are you up to this beautiful day?” Jack said cheerfully, hoping they weren’t causing too much mischief… but then he saw Lock and Shock holding hands and he raised his brow in surprise.

“Uh, hi Jack. We have some good news.” said Barrel, trying to express with his face and tone of voice that it was in fact not good news at all.

“Shock’s my girlfriend now!” Lock said proudly, as if daring Jack to tell them that they were too young.

“And Lock’s my boyfriend!” added Shock, squeezing his hand a little tighter.

Jack looked even more surprised, then saw Barrel’s desperate little face staring up at him. “We went through the holiday doors to somewhere called Valentine’s Day Town and something happened. Something weird. Like a poison or spell or something.” he pleaded, willing Jack to understand.

“Why do you keep going on about a spell?” Shock said, now starting to feel a little annoyed. Honestly, couldn’t Barrel just be happy for them?

It took every ounce of Jack’s power to keep from laughing. He had visited Valentine’s Day Town before and knew what it was about - after the Christmas fiasco Jack had embarked on a diplomatic mission to meet with all of the Holiday Leaders and establish goodwill, and everything he’d learned had fascinated him and given him plenty of new ideas and things to explore - though he’d certainly learned his lesson about trying to take over anyone’s holiday. And while he knew that the children were all extremely close, it was quite out of character for Lock and Shock to suddenly and without warning decide they were boyfriend and girlfriend… but once Barrel mentioned Valentine’s Day, it all made sense. He wasn’t sure exactly what had happened to the little witch and devil, but he thought it smartest to play along with them for now until he could determine exactly what was going on and how to proceed.

“I see! Well, congratulations, you two! That is truly wonderful news. Why don’t you tell me all about your trip to Valentine’s Day Town while we walk over to tell Sally? I’m sure she’d love to hear the good news. Maybe she’ll make you a cake to celebrate!” Actually his plan was to try and get them to Dr. Finkelstein for an examination, and Jack knew that food was the most effective way to bribe the children. Barrel looked up at Jack completely devastated, but then Jack winked and nodded reassuringly at him when Lock and Shock weren’t looking and the little ghoul relaxed. Surely Jack was going to fix everything. They strolled along to the laboratory and told Jack all about their adventure, and Barrel was careful to include the parts about the potentially-drugged chocolates or poison-dipped arrows. Jack remembered what Cupid had told him about the magic arrows that he and his helpers used to inspire romantic love, and he hoped there was a way to reverse it. Cute as this little puppy-love was, it wasn’t fair to Lock and Shock to have been artificially influenced into liking one another this way. If they were going to start having romantic feelings for each other, it needed to come naturally. Jack had to scold all three of them for setting off cherry bombs and attempting to steal from a foreign land - it was bad enough when they caused severe property damage and stole things in their own town, but now he was going to have to send them back to apologize and make amends after Lock and Shock were back to normal… plus he might even have to take the two of them back to Valentine’s Day Town anyway to cure them if nobody in Halloween Town could reverse the enchantment.   
  
Finally they reached the lab. Sally was just as surprised as Jack was to see the little witch and devil holding hands and smiling brightly up at her, but then Jack explained that the trio had visited Valentine’s Day Town and she understood. Jack had learned all sorts of romantic things from that place that she was enjoying very much during their courtship but Sally agreed that even though Lock and Shock were being almost unbearably cute right now, it wasn’t right for them to be feeling this way towards one another because of an enchantment. She led everyone into the kitchen and while the kids dug into a plateful of cookies and sugar-coated beetles, Jack pulled her aside and whispered: “We’ve got to find a way to let the doctor examine them. It sounds like they were hit with cupid arrows and we need to figure out a way to snap them out of it.” He highly doubted they would sit willingly for an examination and had no idea how to convince them, but Sally had an idea. She felt a little bad at the prospect of drugging children, but Lock and Shock were stubborn and she couldn’t imagine any other way to get them on the operating table. She pulled a small jar of deadly nightshade out of the cupboard to show him, and Jack nodded in agreement. She hadn’t used it for a very long time because ever since the doctor had created Jewel he didn’t have much use for Sally anymore. He let her stay and still made her do most of the cleaning and cooking, but he was much less uptight about how she spent her time and he never locked her up anymore, so she had no reason to poison him these days. She poured just the tiniest amount into two glasses of pumpkin juice, then added a few other tasty herbs as well to hide the nightshade flavor.

“Here you are,” she said kindly, placing the drugged juice in front of Lock and Shock and handing Barrel a non-drugged glass. Lock was busy tossing the sugared beetles up into the air and trying to catch them in his mouth, hoping to impress Shock, then they started tossing them at one another’s open mouths, trying to catch them and giggling the whole time. Barrel wanted to smack his head on the table until he lost consciousness but instead he drowned his sorrows in cookies, wishing that Jack or Sally would hurry up and do something already. Finally Lock and Shock stopped flirting long enough to drink their pumpkin juice and within minutes they began to feel sleepy… and then they were suddenly both passed out and drooling with their heads on the table. Sally gave Barrel more cookies and a coloring book and some crayons - ever since Oogie Boogie died and she had become a bit closer to the children she had started keeping toys and games around for whenever they visited.

“Please behave yourself, we’ll be right back.” Jack said sternly as he picked up Lock, and the little ghoul nodded. He didn’t really have any good ideas for mischief at the moment anyway, he was too depressed about what would happen if Dr. Finkelstein couldn’t help his friends. Sally smiled gently at him, then picked up Shock and followed Jack up the ramp to the doctor’s operating room.

Dr. Finkelstein begrudgingly performed numerous tests on Lock and Shock: he took samples of their blood and saliva, peeled open their eyelids to check their eyes, looked up their noses and in their mouths and ears. He tested their reflexes and took small scrapings of their skin and hair samples to test. After the results came in he turned to Jack and Sally, scratching his brain in frustration. “I really have no idea what to make of this. If I could get urine and stool samples from them I might get a tiny bit more information, but it seems that their condition is - shockingly - beyond my comprehension and abilities.” Jack and Sally glanced nervously at one another. Even if they could manage to convince Lock and Shock to pee and poop in a cup, it didn’t sound like that would yield much helpful information.

“Do you have any suggestions at all, Doctor?” asked Sally.

“I suggest you take them to the witches. This sort of magic is more within their skill set, I think.”

“Excellent idea, Doctor! Thank you very much for your time.” Jack said graciously as he scooped Lock back off of the table, and Sally picked up Shock and they headed back down to the kitchen. Barrel was sitting quietly where they had left him, scribbling anxiously in the coloring book without even trying to stay inside the lines and Sally gave him a brand new small super-bouncy ball as a reward for behaving so nicely. Then they all headed for the coven headquarters across town.

The witches weren’t especially pleased with the idea of doing anything nice for Lock or Shock. They were most definitely not fond of the three trick-or-treaters, but Helgamine and Zeldaborne were so enamored with Jack that they would do anything he requested. “Put them down here.” Helgamine said crankily, pointing to the center of the floor while Zeldaborne went to a cupboard full of supplies and several very large spell books. “And you! Don’t you dare touch anything or we’ll turn you into a toad, you little vandal!” she hissed at Barrel.

“I didn’t do anything!” he protested angrily. He was having the worst day ever and now he was getting yelled at before he even caused any trouble at all. Those witches didn’t have any sense of humor, he thought to himself. How could anybody not find drilling holes in the bottoms of their cauldrons or putting termites in their broom closet funny? Sally gently took him by the hand and led him to the far corner where he could bounce his new bouncy-ball against the wall and hopefully not hit anything important with it while the witches began drawing some sort of symbols around the sleeping devil and witch on the floor with white chalk. They started murmuring strange incantations and waving various bundles of herbs over the children, but after a moment Lock and Shock began to stir - the deadly nightshade was wearing off.

“What the heck are you doing?!” Lock yelled when he realized where he was, then he noticed that he had a significant headache… and then he saw Shock groggily coming to beside him on the floor. “What’d you do to her!?” he yelled even louder despite his aching head and her eyes popped open at the sound of his voice.

“What’s going on?” she said angrily, sitting up and rubbing her own head. She felt like her brain was pounding against the inside of her skull.

Jack thought up a lie as quickly as he could. “You both fell asleep and we wanted to do something nice and surprise you.” The children looked at him suspiciously so he continued: “Zeldaborne and Helgamine here are doing some spells to make sure you have a long and happy relationship together! Isn’t that right, ladies?”

“Sure is.” Helgamine said, trying to go along with the lie - but only for Jack’s sake.

“We don’t need any dumb old spells! Lock’s perfect just how he is and I’m gonna like him forever!” Shock said with her nose in the air.

“Yeah!” agreed Lock. “I’m gonna like Shock forever plus infinity without any stupid magic!” Jack had to keep from chuckling because it was magic that had caused these sudden passionate sentiments in the first place, but he held his tongue. “She’s the best and prettiest witch in Halloween Town!” Lock added, giving Helgamine and Zeldaborne a smug, nasty look, but the older witches only rolled their eyes. As if some six-year-old devil’s opinion could matter one whit to them.

“Alright, we’ll just finish up then, since you’re so confident.” said Zeldaborne, sprinkling a few more herbs on the two little lovebats as Helgamine took Jack aside and said:

“Well, I think we’ve cracked it. It’s some weird magic for sure, but hopefully with a few more incantations they’ll be back to their annoying little selves. No promises, though.” Jack nodded in understanding and watched anxiously as Helgamine returned to Zeldaborne’s side and they interlocked their fingers together over the children and chanted some very strange words before each throwing a fistful of herbs on the floor inside their chalk circle and there was a large poof of purple smoke… but when the smoke cleared they found Lock and Shock kissing again - they had decided to take advantage of their temporary invisibility to sneak in another smooch.

“Noooooooo!!” Barrel wailed from the corner. Sally tried to pat him comfortingly on the shoulder, but he was rapidly losing hope for any solution. He was going to have to take his few belongings and move out after all, and he hoped it wouldn’t rain anytime soon.

“Sorry Jack, we tried.” the witches shrugged and Jack sighed.

“I know you did. Thank you very much for your time and efforts.”

“We already told you, we don’t need some dumb spell.” Shock said snottily as she let Lock help her up from the floor again. It seemed like Lock had been taking notes on being a gentleman from Jack, and she decided she rather liked it.

“Of course you don’t.” Jack said. “We were only trying to do something nice for you. Please forgive our presumption.” The children weren’t sure what ‘presumption’ meant, but getting an apology from the Pumpkin King was always nice, so they nodded once and then turned towards the door with their noses in the air and hand in hand once more. Barrel started to trudge miserably after them, but Jack grasped his arm and knelt down as close to the little ghoul as he could get. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out.” he whispered. “Just try to survive tonight and we’ll go straight back to Valentine’s Day Town in the morning to find a solution, okay?” It was far too late to go all the way back to the holiday doors by now but Jack felt certain that if there was any hope for a cure, then that’s where they would find it. Barrel nodded as Jack released him, then he followed his cohorts out of the coven headquarters and back home to the treehouse for what was sure to be a very long and aggravating night.

The trio spent the rest of the evening on their ratty old sofa watching the beat-up, barely-working television and eating snacks: Lock and Shock were snuggled up close together under the tattered throw blanket and sharing a box of chocolate malt balls, while Barrel was sitting as far away from them as he could get and stress-eating an enormous bowl of popcorn all by himself before moving on to three candied-apples and two nougat bars. Finally he couldn’t ignore their revolting giggling any longer and decided to go to bed even though he wasn’t tired yet. Eventually Lock and Shock began to get sleepy, too, and Shock decided she’d better to go bed before she fell asleep with her head on Lock’s shoulder and accidentally snored or drooled on him and embarrassed herself. “Well, I think I’ll go to bed. Goodnight.” she said shyly as she got up off the couch, and Lock followed her. He probably could have stayed awake for one more show, but what was the point if Shock wasn’t there watching it with him?

“Okay, goodnight.” he said shyly back, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before she disappeared into her bedroom. He didn’t understand why he still felt a bit bashful about kissing her after they’d done it so many times already - usually he got bored with things pretty quickly, but kissing or being kissed by her was still just as exciting and nerve-wracking as it was the first time. That night two little trick-or-treaters slept soundly and contentedly in their beds, but one tossed and turned restlessly in his wadded up pile of blankets, hoping that maybe that day had all just been a bad dream.

  
Unfortunately for Barrel, his nightmare was all too real. When he dragged himself into the kitchen that morning he found Shock still in her pajamas, humming contentedly to herself while she sliced up some pumpkin and kept an eye on the tea kettle. “Where’s Lock?” Barrel asked warily as he hopped up onto his seat at the table.

“He went outside to find some eggs for breakfast.” she said cheerily, and Barrel frowned. Shock was never this chipper in the morning. Just then the elevator gears started turning, the cage came up through the trap door and Lock strolled out of it carrying an absolutely gigantic dead vulture.

“Look what I killed!” he said proudly, hoping that Shock would be impressed. He’d never bagged something as big as a full-grown vulture before, but he was feeling at the top of his game that morning.

“Oh wow!” she squealed, pushing her cutting board and pumpkin aside so Lock could toss the vulture on the countertop. “You’re such a good hunter!” she gushed, and Barrel was glad he hadn’t eaten anything yet because otherwise he would have puked it all over the floor just then.

“It’s humongous!” said Barrel, staring at the dead vulture. He had to admit it was an impressive catch, but he also wondered what on earth they were going to do with all that meat. “How the heck are we supposed to eat all of that before it goes bad?”

“Shouldn’t be too hard with you around, fatty!” Lock smirked and Shock laughed meanly. Barrel sighed to himself - at least some things were still the same. In addition to his trophy vulture Lock had indeed found some eggs and Shock whipped up a tasty pumpkin omelette for the three of them, which Lock fawned over incessantly until even Barrel nearly lost his appetite.

After everyone was dressed they grabbed their masks, chugged some of Sally’s anti-allergy potion, then headed to Jack’s house because the Pumpkin King had demanded that they return to him the next morning so he could take them back to Valentine’s Day Town to apologize for the damage they’d caused. That was indeed part of Jack’s intention, but even more importantly it was their last hope of restoring Lock and Shock to their former selves… though Jack had been smart enough not to say that to the two little lovebats, who were still in complete denial that their feelings had been caused by an outside influence. The kids were definitely irritated about being made to apologize, but Shock and Lock figured if they were together than it couldn’t be that bad, and maybe they could still manage to snitch some chocolates while they were there… but for once in his life Barrel couldn’t care less about chocolates, he was just hoping that his cohorts could be cured and that soon they would be back to strangling and punching one another instead of kissing and holding hands.

“Are you ready to go apologize and make up for your actions the other day?” Jack said sternly as they all headed out into the forest, and he was answered with various disgruntled mumbling and grumbling from all three of the children. When the four of them arrived at Valentine’s Day Town they saw numerous little flying diaper kids working on repairing the damage that the trick-or-treaters explosives had caused and the trio laughed wickedly and congratulated themselves on the chaos they had left in their wake. Each of the little cherubs greeted them politely except for two who glared angrily at Lock and Shock - clearly those were the two who had seen them stealing the chocolate and shot them with the arrows. Jack led them to the largest building there and introduced them to Cupid, and the trick-or-treaters could barely contain their giggling because he looked like an even stupider holiday leader than Sandy Claws: he appeared to be only slightly older than the other little flying people and was wearing just as little clothing. He also had wings and a golden bow and arrows and he was delighted to see Jack - clearly the two of them had spent some time getting to know one another and all of the children prayed that Jack wouldn’t try to take over this holiday next.

“Jack! Welcome back! How is that lovely doll of yours? Come for some more tips and advice from the land of love?” Cupid grinned, forming dimples in his rosy cheeks. The children couldn’t hold in their raucous laughter at that, and if Jack had skin he would have blushed a bit, for discussing his love life was definitely not something he felt like doing in front of the trick-or-treaters. Instead he cleared his throat and replied:

“Sally is just fine, thank you for asking. And I’m afraid that we’ve come on less-pleasant business.” Under Jack’s extremely stern and scary gaze the children took off their masks and grumbled a confession and apology, but to their surprise Cupid didn’t seem all that upset. He accepted their apology, then leaned down a bit closer to Lock and Shock with a knowing grin on his face.

“Well, well… seems like you two are in the right place. I can tell you’ve met with some of my cherub’s arrows, hm? Adorable!”

Shock and Lock scrunched up their faces at being called ‘adorable’, then Shock replied haughtily:

“Two of your little minions shot us in the butt!”

“Yeah, they should have to apologize to us!” added Lock, but Jack looked down at them and said lightly:

“I think that’s a fair trade for blowing up a significant portion of their garden.” Then he turned to Cupid and said politely, “I actually need to talk to you about Lock and Shock here. While they definitely deserve to be punished for their misbehavior…” and the children rolled their eyes, but Jack continued: “It really is troubling that they have been artificially influenced by those arrows. These two have shown no indication of romantic affection until that incident, so I do hope you are willing and able to reverse the effects and restore them to their normal selves.”

“What are you talking about?” Lock and Shock said simultaneously, feeling deeply offended that their devotion to one another was being questioned yet again. Why was it so hard for everyone else to understand that they were obviously meant to be boyfriend and girlfriend forever and ever?

“Well, Jack, you remember that I told you that my arrows only work on those targets who are already susceptible, so clearly there’s something here, however deeply it may be buried or how undeveloped it may be…” said Cupid while scratching his chin and examining Shock and Lock closely, and Barrel didn’t know what ‘susceptible’ or ‘undeveloped’ meant, but it didn’t sound good. “However, it is also true that being stuck with those arrows while here in this land packs a much stronger punch than it does outside of it, especially on targets so young. And far be it from me to presume to know what’s best for your citizens, so I can indeed reverse the effects.”

“Excellent, thank you very much, Cupid.” Jack said, and Barrel felt so relieved he could have cried. Finally his misery was coming to an end. Cupid reached into his quiver and pulled out another two arrows, but these ones were silver. Lock and Shock’s eyes widened and they took a few steps back as he loaded an arrow into his bow, and they both put their arms out in an attempt to protect the other. Barrel watched eagerly, both because he thought it would be pretty funny to see them get shot, but also because he was desperate to see if this would work. Lock was just about to try and pull Shock under a nearby rose bush to hide, but suddenly Cupid released the bow and the silver arrow hit him right in the arm.

“Ow!” he yelled, and immediately pulled out the arrow and started rubbing his arm, for this arrow hurt considerably more than the golden one had. Within seconds Cupid had shot Shock in her arm as well, and she yelled just as loudly and pulled the arrow out just as quickly. They simultaneously decided that the next time they came back to Valentine’s Day Town they were going to put twenty cherry bombs underneath Cupid’s throne, but then a weird, heavy, sinking sort of feeling came over them, like having a thick, cold blanket draped on top of them… and then everything came back to them with startling clarity. They turned to look at one another and their expressions of anger at being shot quickly transformed into horror.

“Holy crap…” Shock said as she brought her hands to her mouth, remembering the feeling of Lock’s lips and feeling like she wanted to barf. What had she been thinking? She couldn’t believe she’d let Lock’s horrible lips touch her, and even worse, that she’d touched his annoying - and definitely not cute! - face with her own. And wanting to be his girlfriend?? She didn’t want to be anybody’s girlfriend, especially not his! She’d never felt so mortified in her entire existence and she suddenly wanted to drown herself in the nearby reflecting pool - or even better, drown Lock in it. “Oh my god, so gross!” she said in a tone of utmost revulsion as she took several steps away from him.

“That was the most disgusting thing that has ever happened, ever, EVER!” Lock said angrily as he roughly scrubbed his face with his sleeve until his white skin was pink and his blue lips were purple. What had he been thinking? How could he ever have thought she was pretty, and even worse, how could he have kissed her and let her kiss him back? And all the lovey things he’d said to her, and how excited he was to be her boyfriend?? It was just too repulsive to think about and he’d never felt so embarrassed in his entire existence. He was tempted to throw himself under the town square guillotine again once they got back home - or even better, throw Shock under it.

“Yay!” Barrel cried happily, breaking out into an enormous toothy grin, and Jack couldn’t help grinning himself.

“That’s more like it, there’s the Lock and Shock we know!” Jack chuckled. “Are you two feeling better?”

“NO!” they shouted at the same time, then glared at one another.

“Oh, so you’d rather be in love?” Jack teased them, and both of their eyes bugged out in rage and horror.

“NO!!” they shouted even louder, and now Jack couldn’t help laughing out loud. Barrel was giggling so hard that he actually snorted several times, and when his cohorts turned to glare at him he pointed at them and said happily:

“I can’t believe you guys kissed, that’s soooo grooooss!” Now that he knew it wasn’t permanent, it was truly the most hilarious thing he had witnessed in a good long while and the misery of the previous day was all worth it.

“SHUT UP, BARREL!” they both yelled at him, their cheeks going red.

“And you held hands, too!” Barrel squealed in delight, now laughing even harder. It wasn’t often that he got to embarrass his two older cohorts, and now he got to do it to them both at the same time. It was too good not to savor.

“Shut it, midget, or I’m gonna punch your lights out!” Lock snarled, baring his teeth and balling his fists, and Shock was fully prepared to help him.

“That’s enough now, all of you.” Jack said, suppressing a grin and placing his bony hands on both Lock and Barrel’s shoulders to keep a fight from breaking out. If they were going to duke it out - and he was certain that they were - they could at least do it when they were back in their own town. “Thank you so much, Cupid, and again, please accept my apologies for the damage. Unfortunately playing tricks is part of their jobs, though from now on I am very hopeful that they will keep those tricks confined to Halloween Town and the Human World.” Jack looked down very sternly at all three of the children, but then Cupid said lightly:

“No trouble at all, Jack. It seems that these three have probably learned a lesson.” He leaned down and looked all three of the trick-or-treaters right in the eye. “Just be warned, if you choose to cause mischief here my cherubs and I will have no choice but to use these again,” he waved one of the golden arrows and the children shrank back a few steps. “And the next time, I may not be able to find my silver ones. Understand?” They nodded frantically and decided that even though he was completely stupid-looking and had a stupid holiday, Cupid scared them almost as much as Jack did.

Despite Cupid’s assurances that it wasn’t necessary, Jack insisted that Lock, Shock and Barrel be put to work to help with the reconstruction efforts so the children soon found themselves hauling heavy chunks of marble away, sweeping up dust and glueing fallen tiles back into murals for several hours while Jack and Cupid sat nearby chatting and eating chocolates. Lock and Shock didn’t say a word to one another but Barrel giggled pretty much nonstop all throughout their punishment, deciding that even this heavy labor was worth it because making fun of them for kissing and holding hands and being all lovey-dovey with each other would give him ammunition for months. At last Jack decided that they had been punished enough, and Cupid even gave each of them a box of chocolates while assuring them that there was nothing in them that would cause gross, unnatural, lovey-dovey feelings.

The trek back home was intensely awkward for Lock and Shock, and they kept as far away from each other as they could on the narrow path as they trailed along after Barrel and Jack, who were having a rather pleasant conversation with one another. Jack of course had to take the tiniest steps he could in order to keep pace with the children and their short little legs, but he didn’t often spend time with them that didn’t include scolding or punishing them or taking them to see the doctor, so he was quite enjoying their walk. When they reached town they parted ways and the trio headed back towards their treehouse.

“We can’t go back to that place, no matter how much chocolate is there!” Lock finally spoke up for the first time since he’d threatened to punch Barrel back in Valentine’s Day Town.

“Agreed.” said Shock firmly. No amount of candy in the world was worth the horribleness they had just endured. “Those arrows are the worst kind of magic ever. There’s no way I’d kiss your dumb, gross face without something crazy-powerful like that.”

Lock was about to argue back that her face was dumber and grosser than his, but then Barrel interrupted: “Yeah right, I bet you totally wanted to kiss before you got a magic arrow in your butt…” he snickered.

“Watch it, twerp…” Shock hissed in a low, threatening voice, but Barrel was undeterred.

“Shock and Lock, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-….” he singsonged, but that’s as far as he got because Lock made good on his earlier threat and clocked him right in the face. Barrel stopped laughing for only a moment because it hurt, but then he started laughing again because the hilarity outweighed the pain and he continued his teasing. “N-G! First comes love, then comes marriage…”

“Then comes my foot up your butt!” Shock yelled, and she was so mad that she actually tackled him. Lock dog-piled onto both of them, but then realized that he didn’t want to touch Shock again for as long as he lived so he quickly rolled back off again and let her deal with punishing that stupid little ghoul. Shock wasn’t satisfied until she’d given Barrel two black eyes and a puffy lip, and she finally got off of him when he promised not to tease them anymore… but Barrel decided that he didn’t even need to cross his fingers to break this promise later, because this was just too good of an opportunity to let go to waste.

When they reached their treehouse Lock and Shock drew straws to decide who got to use the bath to wash each others gross cooties off first. Shock won the draw and Lock would have fought her over it if wasn’t still completely disgusted by the idea of touching her, so she stuck her tongue out at him and slammed the bathroom door shut as hard as she could while he gave her the nastiest glare he was capable of. As she scrubbed herself off in the bath she thought about everything that had happened and she cringed at all of the embarrassing things she had said and done. While obviously kissing him and thinking he was cute was completely the fault of the arrows, she had to admit to herself that some of what she’d said was at least sort of true… even though he was a stupid show-off, he was really tough and brave and she’d never forget the way he’d stood up to Oogie Boogie on her behalf… and even though he’d received a terrible beating for it, never once did he blame her afterwards. And she did really think he was a good athlete and hunter. And she even had to admit that even though half the time his ideas were completely idiotic and reckless, sometimes he did have really good ones… but she’d rather throw herself into the pit than ever, ever tell him that. And then she wondered… if some of what she’d said to him was actually true, did he really think some of the things he’d said to her? She quickly shook off that thought as she drained the tub and got dressed. Why did she care if Lock thought anything nice about her? He was so dumb that his opinion didn’t matter to her one bit, and she made a mental note to punch him in the face or kick him in the crotch at the next available opportunity, just because.

When Lock finally got his turn in the bath he had many of the same thoughts. He wanted to steal all of those stupid golden arrows and melt them down into one big metal blob and throw them into a volcano for making him kiss Shock’s stupid, ugly face… but then he thought about what he’d said to her and painfully admitted to himself that ‘stupid’ wasn’t really a good word to use to describe her. While he wished more than anything that he hadn’t said it out loud, the truth was that he did actually think she was super smart. How could she not be? She’d learned to read so much younger than he had and she knew all sorts of things that he had no clue about. And even though she was an annoying, bossy, uptight know-it-all, she was really good at figuring out how to execute their more elaborate pranks. And the fact was that if she hadn’t been around to cook for them, he and Barrel would basically be living off of candy and stolen hot-frogs from town now that Oogie Boogie was dead and gone… and Oogie never fed them consistently anyway, so they would still have been going hungry a lot of the time if Shock wasn’t there. She could keep a cool head in an emergency slightly better than he and Barrel could, and he would never forget her helping him with his tail when he’d been dumb enough to get it chopped off. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got, and then he wondered if she’d meant some of the nice things that she’d said to him… and then he got even angrier because he didn’t understand why he should care if she thought nice things about him. She was so annoying that her opinion didn’t matter to him one bit, and he decided to try and set her hair on fire or something the next chance he got, just to make sure she knew it.

When Lock and Shock had both finished scrubbing themselves as clean as possible, another distraction was desperately needed. “Let’s go spray-paint some swear words on the Mayor’s house.” Lock suggested, eager to get back to their normal activities.

“Good idea.” said Shock, and she pulled out the cans of paint that Oogie Boogie had given them from the trunk in the corner.

Barrel just grinned and didn’t say anything as they headed for the cage elevator. Even though he was pretty beat up, he wasn’t done teasing them quite yet. He knew what he was going to spray paint on the Mayor’s house, and it definitely wasn’t swear words.


	11. The Bicycle

“You’re such a huge scaredy cat.” Lock taunted as he finished duct-taping the busted handle grip of the dented and dinged bicycle. They had found it in an alley next to a dumpster in the Human World last Halloween and it was just too cool not to bring back home. It took all three of them to carry it since the tires were flat, but it was nothing that a little duct tape and an air pump they’d stolen from one of the other children couldn’t fix.

They had never ridden a bicycle before. Some of the other kids in town had them, but the trick-or-treaters hadn’t managed to steal one yet and Oogie Boogie had never given them one so they were desperate to try it. Barrel watched eagerly as his middle cohort threw the duct tape carelessly aside - the kickstand of the bicycle was so bent as to be completely useless, so Barrel had to hold the bike upright while Lock taped the handle grip.

“I’m not a scaredy cat, I just don’t wanna break my face! Can’t we just try it on a normal hill to start?” Shock replied, hands on her hips and wearing a very annoyed expression. She was just as excited to try the bike as anyone - she was the one who had figured out how to fix the chain back into the gears how it belonged, after all - but yet again, Lock had to go for the most dangerous option possible right out of the gate: he wanted to ride the bike down Spiral Hill, which was one of the tallest, steepest and most narrow hills in Halloween Town.

“What’s the big deal? I’m sure it’s super easy. If all the other kids in town can do it, then how hard can it be? We’re way smarter than them.” Lock said confidently, and Shock had to agree that was true… at least of herself. She wasn’t too sure about her cohorts, though.

“Fine, go for it, moron. After you’re dead I’ll get to ride it as much as I want.” she sneered, but Lock just rolled his eyes. He was imagining all the cool tricks he was going to be able to do on the bike and everyone would be so impressed - especially that big scaredy cat Shock - and she would feel so jealous and dumb that she had been too chicken to try it on the best hill in town.

“We’ll show her, huh, Barrel?” Lock turned to his younger cohort, and Barrel grinned widely and nodded. He was so excited to try the bike he could hardly stand it, and he followed along as Lock started walking it up the long, steep hill. Shock sat down on a tombstone off to the side to watch the show, pulling a candy bar out of her pocket and looking forward to seeing the boys eat dirt all the way down the hill. She just hoped they didn’t wreck the bike in the process because she was very much wanting to ride it herself. It took quite a long time for the boys to reach the very top of the hill with the bicycle in tow, and eventually it got so steep that Lock was huffing and puffing a bit and Barrel had to push on the back of it to help. Finally they reached their destination.

The bike was a tiny bit too large for the boys: Lock could reach the pedals while sitting on the seat, but he couldn’t reach the handlebars from that position and Barrel couldn’t reach the pedals at all. But they figured that if they worked together they could manage it. “Okay, I’m gonna pedal and you’re gonna steer, got it?” Lock reminded Barrel, who nodded. Barrel was secretly glad that the bike was too big for Lock to use by himself because otherwise he might not get a turn for days until the novelty wore off and his older cohorts decided to share. Lock tilted the bike to the side just enough that he could straddle it and get his rear end on the seat, but then there was a problem: he couldn’t get the bike upright again and still touch the ground, so balancing was impossible. Barrel could help hold the bike up, but then he couldn’t get on the seat himself. They needed a third person to support the bike so they could both get on. “Hey Shock!” Lock yelled down at her. “Get up here and hold the bike so we can get on!”

Shock snickered to herself. It seemed like Lock never thought out the details of his brilliant ideas and always had to come running to her for help. “No way, figure it out yourself, shorty!” she called back up, though she had every intention of helping them just because she wanted to see her friends crash and burn.

“Oh _come on!_ ” Lock whined.

“Yeah, c’mon, Shock!” Barrel whined as well, and Shock rolled her eyes and shook her head as she tossed her candy wrapper on the ground and started up the hill towards them. She held the bike upright and as steady as she could while Lock scooted as far back on the seat as possible while still keeping his feet on the pedals and Barrel climbed up in front of him and grabbed the handlebars. They both barely fit on the seat but it worked, and Lock wrapped his arms around Barrel’s waist and held on.

“Okay, on my count…” Lock said, and Shock contemplated pushing them over before he could finish counting, but then she decided she wanted to see them mess up on their own so she could laugh and they couldn’t blame her. “One…” Lock said, and Barrel gripped the handles tighter, practically quivering with excitement. “Two…” he continued, and Shock prepared to let go of the bike, feeling rather excited despite herself and wondering if they’d actually manage to succeed. “THREE!” he finished, and started pedaling as fast as he could as Shock released the bike. It felt like they went from zero to a hundred in only a second as they hurtled down the hill, yelling and whooping excitedly and the sheer momentum was enough to keep them upright despite having no clue how to handle a bicycle. They had never moved so fast in their entire lives since this was way faster than they could run and much faster than their walking bathtub could go, and Lock decided right then and there that the bicycle was the best toy of all time. Barrel agreed with him - the wind hitting his laughing face felt amazing and everything was rushing by in such a blur and it was completely thrilling… then a bug flew right into his open mouth but he didn’t even care. Shock watched from the top of the hill and was impressed that they’d stayed upright and she began to feel envious that she wasn’t on that bike as well… perhaps Lock had actually been right and it _was_ super easy, and now he was going to get to tease her for being chicken and he would be right - the thought made her blood boil and she wished she’d gone along with it.

The boys’ glee and Shock’s self-castigation were short-lived, however, because suddenly they were going so fast over the rough ground that Barrel found himself struggling to keep the handlebars steady and Lock found the pedals moving on their own faster than his feet could control them. The bike started wobbling and the more Barrel tried to control their movement, the more wobbly it got and he began to panic. “Where’s the brakes?” he screamed as the bike shook more and more, and Lock was horrified to realize that he hadn’t thought about that. He had no idea where the brakes were and he had a sneaking suspicion that even if he did, it was too late - they were simply going too fast to stop now. He just had to hope they could stay upright until the ground leveled out and their momentum slowed. “Where’s the braaaaaakes!??!” Barrel screamed again, his eyes bugging out as they careened down the hill and Lock squeezed his arms around his waist so hard he could barely breath.

“I don’t knooooow!!!” Lock screamed in response as he held on to his cohort even tighter, and with the wind rushing past his ears he couldn’t hear Shock start cackling from on top of the hill. She had figured out where the brakes were earlier, but Lock hadn’t bothered to ask her about them so she figured he must already know… but clearly that was not the case. She watched with wicked delight as they hurtled out of control towards the bottom of the hill, and she tried to guess where they would make their inevitable crash landing - her bet was on either a headstone slightly to the left in front of them, or the patch of poison ivy to the right. “Watch out for the rock!” Lock yelled in Barrel’s ear, and Barrel jerked the handlebars to avoid hitting the sizable rock in their path… and while he managed steer clear of the rock, instead they twisted sharply to the side and went crashing right into that big patch of poison ivy.

Shock started laughing so hard she could hardly breath, and she quickly ran down the hill to check the damage and laugh in their faces. She found them in a tangled heap with Barrel rubbing one of his elbows and Lock one of his knees where they had hit the ground first, both groaning a bit and still too stunned to realize what kind of plant they were sitting in. “Nice job, losers! Real cool-looking!” she cackled between wheezing breaths, holding her side both from laughing and running and Lock glared at her. She was going to make fun of them for days - possibly weeks - and the thought was infuriating and humiliating and he wished he had listened to her about starting out a little more slowly.

“Ow.” Barrel mumbled, and he was sorely tempted to punch Lock for talking him into this dumb idea, but then he noticed something else: his hand was starting to itch a bit. He stopped rubbing his elbow so he could scratch it, and Shock laughed even harder.

“Hey dummies, nice place to land!” she howled, pointing to the poison ivy and the boys looked down and then immediately shrieked and disentangled themselves from the bicycle and scrambled out of the ivy as quickly as they could… but the damage was done. Lock noticed that his hands, neck, face and tail were starting to itch, and Barrel’s feet, face and neck were itching now, too.

“CRAP.” Lock moaned, rolling over onto his back and thudding his head against the ground several times in frustration. His humiliation had just gone from bad to worse, and then even worse still when Barrel kicked him in the leg - the one with the sore knee. “OW!” he shouted, rolling back over so he could kick Barrel back with his good leg, but Barrel quickly rolled out of the way.

“How come you didn’t know where the brakes were, dummy!” the little ghoul yelled, trading off between scratching both of his hands and his feet.

“You didn’t know either, so it’s not just my fault!” Lock snarled back, and he gave up on trying to kick Barrel and focused on scratching his increasingly itchy neck instead. Their discomfort gave Shock a deep and satisfying joy and even though it looked like the bicycle was pretty bent-up now, she didn’t even care. Surely it could be fixed, and in the meantime she would have their poison ivy rashes to laugh at.

“Well, pull it out of there, morons!” she snickered. There was no way she was going to touch the bike and risk getting poison ivy on herself. “We’ll have to hose it down and get all the poison off of it.”

“No way! Let’s get a rope to pull it out!” snarled Lock, but Barrel just sighed and grabbed one of the tires and pulled it out. He figured his hands couldn’t get much itchier so there was no point in taking the trouble to get a rope. He walked the bike along behind his cohorts back towards the treehouse, stopping frequently to scratch wherever he was itching the most and grumbling under his breath. Feeling itchy was one of the worst feelings in the world… probably the only thing that felt worse was being hungry, he thought.

Shock was still snickering under her breath at her cohort’s misfortune, and she couldn’t help continuing to mock their massive error in judgement. “I told you that was a dumb idea! You don’t know how to ride a bike and Barrel’s so klutzy he can hardly even walk - so how’d you _think_ it was gonna turn out?”

“Hey!” Barrel yelled, offended by her insult, but then he tripped a bit as he tried to scratch one of his feet with the other and he was glad she didn’t see it.

“Shut it, Shock.” Lock growled, scratching his ear with one hand and his neck with the other. He was trying to scratch his tail by rubbing it against his leg but it wasn’t really helping.

“I can’t believe how stupid you two are!” she said happily. “You just _had_ to pick the craziest hill in the whole town and you didn’t even know where the brakes are! It’s a miracle you even know where your own butt is!” she cackled, and Lock had had enough.

“I said SHUT IT!” he yelled, and he reached out and grabbed her face with both of his poison-ivy-tainted hands. She shrieked and punched him in the nose, which caused him to let go of her but the damage was done. Even though his nose hurt now Lock smirked in satisfaction that he made her shut her big dumb mouth, and he hoped that he’d at least gotten enough of the poison on her to give her a rash like he and Barrel were going to get. Shock wanted to throttle him for grabbing her, but she didn’t want to touch his neck and get poison ivy on her hands, too… then she thought about kicking him in the rear end since her boots would protect her, but then he might actually tackle her and rub more of the irritating chemical on her so she refrained.

When they got home they left the battered bicycle outside and while Lock and Barrel were fighting over who got to take a bath first Shock snuck into the bathroom and washed her face off as best she could, but it was too late - both of her cheeks were starting to itch. “Stupid Lock!” she thought to herself, though she had to admit that if their places had been reversed she would have done the same thing… but on the other hand, she wasn’t dumb enough to go crashing into a bunch of poison ivy on a bike that she didn’t know how to ride in the first place. Suddenly the door slammed open and an irate-looking Lock entered the bathroom holding his pajama pants with only his pinkie and thumb, trying to avoid contaminating them.

“Get out of here!” he snapped, desperate to wash off as much of the awful itch-inducing substance as possible and Shock strolled out of the bathroom at a leisurely pace, glad at least that her cohorts were worse off than she was. She walked past Barrel - who was sitting on the living room floor and frantically scratching his feet - and went to the kitchen. They still had a tiny bit of the medicinal poultice that Sally had made for them some time ago and she was hoping that it might help with poison ivy, too. She scooped a bit of it out with a spoon, not wanting to contaminate the whole jar, then put it in her hands and rubbed it all over her face where Lock’s rotten hands had touched her. The poultice seemed to soothe the itching significantly and she quickly screwed the jar shut and tucked the poultice away at the back of the cupboard - there wasn’t much left and she didn’t plan on sharing it with her moronic friends. She was sure to wipe it off of her face before Lock got out of the bath, but fortunately he was in there forever so the poultice had plenty of time to sink in.

After both Lock and Barrel had washed themselves off as best they could, they all sat in the living room in their pajamas watching television. The boys were just too itchy to do anything else but Shock was feeling mostly fine thanks to her secret weapon. Both Lock and Barrel were starting to get an ugly, red, blistery rash everywhere the poison ivy had touched them and they were so wrapped up in their misery that they were barely able to pay attention to the movie… but then Lock noticed that Shock wasn’t itching at all and that her cheeks were only a bit pink instead of red and blistery. “How come your face looks normal?” he asked, then quickly amended his statement: “How come your face looks as ugly as normal?”

Shock just shrugged and lied casually, “I dunno, guess you didn’t get me as good as you thought you did. Either that or you two are just wimps compared to me.”

Lock and Barrel both gave her a nasty look, but she only smirked harder. “It’s not my fault you have weak little baby skin to go along with your weak little baby brains.” Lock really wanted to tackle her and beat the snot out of her for that, but that would take time away from scratching himself so he just muttered:

“Just you wait. Me and Barrel are gonna throw you in that poison ivy as soon as we’re not itchy anymore.”

“Yeah!” Barrel agreed from the floor where he was rubbing his feet against the rug so he could free up both hands to scratch his face and neck.

Shock just shrugged and smirked again, “Go ahead and try, see if I care.” She stretched out and got more comfortable on the sofa to enjoy the television program as the boys grumbled and itched. Even if they did manage to throw her in the poison ivy later she had enough of the secret poultice left that she could probably deal with it just fine - in fact, she almost hoped they would just so her apparent imperviousness would tick them off even more.


	12. E-Z Wart Serum

Lock was often an impulsive hothead whose emotions ran close to the surface, but the rest of the time he was smooth and sly… and extremely convincing. He was skilled at talking just about anyone into believing what he said and he could very often persuade others into doing what he wanted, especially poor Barrel. Shock was slightly more immune to Lock’s persuasive talents than most, but he could still get under her skin sometimes… and this was one of those times.

The three children were sitting in a little circle on the living room floor with a pile of paint pens, tape, scissors, glue and string in the center, making evil-looking masks out of scraps of cardboard they had found by the dumpsters behind the town market. Music was playing on their battered-up radio and everything was going pleasantly until Lock started to feel a little bit bored. He liked doing arts and crafts reasonably well, but not as much as Shock and especially not as much as Barrel, who was the best artist of the three of them. While his cohorts worked busily on their masks and hummed along contentedly to the music, Lock decided to shake things up a bit.

“You’re not much of a witch, are you?” he said casually.

Barrel’s eyes widened and he quickly looked over at Shock to see her reaction to this random, unprovoked insult. Her jaw dropped open slightly in surprise, then she furrowed her brow and snarled: “What? What the heck are you talking about?”

“You know…” Lock continued, not even bothering to look at her as he drew some sharp teeth on his mask. “You can’t turn into a cat or anything. I saw Zeldaborne do that once and it looked really wicked.”

Shock tensed up defensively. It was true that she couldn’t turn into a cat - but to be fair, that was pretty advanced magic. And besides that, Lock and Barrel couldn’t do anything magical either, so she thought it was extremely unfair for him to bring this up as if it were some failing on her part. “Shut up! It’s not like you’re some great devil or something! You don’t have horns and you can’t start fires, so there!” she snapped, but a sly, close-lipped smirk spread across Lock’s face because an angry reaction from her was exactly what he’d been hoping to provoke.

“I don’t need horns, my hair looks cool without them. And who cares about starting fires when I can just use matches? Gets the job done just as well.” He smoothed the front two waves of his hair back with his hands and his smile widened to expose his pointed teeth as he gave Shock an incredibly confident - and rather smug - look. “But you don’t even have any warts and can’t make potions or do any spells or ride on a broom or anything. Pretty pathetic.”

Shock felt her cheeks burning with rage and a fair dose of embarrassment. Desperate to turn the subject away from her deficiencies, she jabbed her finger in Barrel’s direction and said angrily, “Well _he’s_ supposed to be a ghoul but he doesn’t eat rotten stuff and that doesn’t even take any magic!”

Barrel frowned but Lock only shrugged and said, “So what? Everybody knows Barrel’s not good at anything, no surprise there.”

“Hey!” Barrel hollered, but the other two ignored him.

Lock grinned even wider and more deviously, then said in a light, airy voice: “But _you’re_ always going on and on about how smart you are, how good you are at everything, blah blah blah… I guess you’re good at _some_ stuff, but not at being a witch. I’m just saying…”

Shock threw her half-finished mask at his head before getting angrily to her feet. “At least I’m not a stupid, ugly, no-good, useless, dumb idiot like you are!!” she yelled, and it wasn’t the most eloquent of comebacks but she was so incensed that it was the best she could come up with at the moment. She kicked the pile of pens, tape, scissors, string and glue at him before turning on her heel and stomping to her bedroom. She was expecting him to tackle her for throwing the mask and kicking the supplies at him and she braced herself for impact, but he didn’t move - he just stayed sitting in the same spot with a wicked smirk on his face. Lock hadn’t necessarily been looking to start a fight (though that would have been entertaining), he just wanted to bug her - and clearly he had succeeded so he happily went back to working on his mask.

 _“Stupid Lock!”_ Shock thought to herself, pacing angrily in her room with her fists clenched and her teeth gritted. Who did that rotten little devil think he was? How dare he tell her she wasn’t any good at being a witch when he was just as useless at being a devil? But despite that fact, his criticism was burning her up inside. Obviously Lock and Barrel were as dumb as a box of rocks in addition to not being very good demons or ghouls, but Shock had always considered herself much, much smarter than them - so therefore shouldn’t it stand to reason that she should be better at being a witch? She stomped over to her closet and flung open the door to reveal her winter cloak and spare hat along with neat stacks of books, a spear, an axe, a cracked cauldron, bear traps and similar contraptions… and a broom. She stared at the broom for a moment before hesitantly reaching out to take it. She’d never been able to fly on it and she rarely tried anymore, but maybe this time… maybe this time it would work. She grasped the broomstick with both hands and swung one leg over to straddle it and then waited, willing herself to rise into the air… but nothing happened, just like all the other times she’d tried. She gave it a few more attempts, scrunching her eyes tightly shut and imagining taking flight, but her feet stayed planted firmly on the ground. Huffing in frustration, she threw the broom to the floor and flopped down onto her inner tube bed, crossing her arms tightly and gnawing restlessly at her lip as Lock’s words echoed in her mind: _‘You don’t even have any warts’_ , he had said, and she got right back up from her bed and looked into the cracked mirror on top of her dresser at her own angry, pale green face staring back at her. She inspected her face carefully, taking inventory of all her features and evaluating how they measured up to desirable witchy standards: her nose was quite good, she thought - large, long and hooked, it dominated her face and she’d always liked how witchy it was. The dark blue shadows around her eyes were also acceptable, as were her thin, pale greenish-blue lips and snaggled, gappy teeth. Her hair was just as good as any of the other witches in town, she thought - scraggly and wiry and dark blueish and all in all she thought she looked spooky enough… but the one thing she lacked was warts, just like Lock had said.

All of the grown up witches had them - usually many more than one. They were a defining feature of witchiness and as soon as Shock was old enough to realize that fact she’d waited patiently for some to grow in. When she was five she went through a phase of checking every day to see if any had popped up overnight, but she was always disappointed. Eventually she had stopped checking all the time and tried not to think about it, but their painful absence was always lurking below the surface of her mind… and now that Lock had dug his finger squarely into that sore, raw spot in her self-esteem, her desire for that last true physical mark of witchhood flared up to the surface again. She bitterly turned away from the mirror and thought about his other accusations: _‘You can’t turn into a cat’_ , he had said, but she didn’t think that one should count because it really was very advanced magic. _‘You can’t even do any spells’_ , he had said, and Shock gnashed her teeth angrily because it was true. She owned several spell books and had occasionally tried to chant the incantations quietly in her room at night so that her cohorts wouldn’t hear, but about all she’d ever managed to do was make one cockroach she had in a trap look a little bit greenish… though Shock was willing to admit that it was very likely she’d only imagined it. _‘You can’t make potions’_ , he had said, and while that was also true, this one made her pause… she might not be able to make potions, but she was able to make a lot of other things. In her own opinion she was really good at cooking and baking, and the boys certainly never complained about her talents in the kitchen. Oogie Boogie had taught her how to cook and how to read, and she was able to make many things from memory and could read recipes out of cookbooks - and these days she almost always succeeded at whatever she put her hand to. Perhaps if she couldn’t fly on a broom or cast magic spells she could make some potions? After all, it seemed like potion-making couldn’t be _too_ far off from the sort of things she cooked all the time… so she figured if she stood any chance of accomplishing anything witchy that Lock had pointed out she couldn’t do, potions would be her best bet. Perhaps it was time to try again.

She rummaged through her closet - scattering panicked bugs back into cracks in the walls - until she located a book she had swiped from the coven library a few years ago: _“101 Indispensable Potions for the Modern Working Witch”_. She flipped through the pages looking for a recipe that didn’t seem too complicated and settled on one that would kill two bats with one stone if she was able to manage it: an _‘E-Z wart serum’_ that promised to increase wart quantity and size, thereby _‘enhancing your quintessentially terrifying witchy appearance’_. Shock wasn’t sure what _‘quintessentially’_ meant, but it sounded promising and the recipe didn’t look too difficult. She skimmed down the list of ingredients: sticklewort, bloodroot, mugwort, the blood and mucus of a warty toad and sebum from a warthog. She was pretty sure she had some mugwort and bloodroot in the pantry but she would need to acquire the other ingredients some other way. She bent the page back to mark her place and then walked out of her bedroom with her head held high, determined not to let Lock see how much his comments had bothered her.

She found her cohorts still in the living room, wearing their new masks and throwing spitballs and wadded up balls of tape and glue at one another and she walked right past them to the kitchen to check on her herb supply, ignoring the wad of tape that Lock threw at her as it bounced off of her back. She did indeed have just enough bloodroot and mugwort so she headed for the trap door elevator, determined to go straight to town and steal the remaining ingredients so she could show that rotten little devil a thing or two. “Where are you going?” Lock called after her as she walked past them again. Then he threw a gigantic spitball at Barrel, who tried to quickly duck behind the sofa but the spitball hit him in the face and stuck to his mask.

“None of your batwax, nosy!” she sneered at him, grabbing her cross-body bag off of it’s nail on the wall and slinging the strap over her shoulder.

“Can we come?” Barrel piped up from behind his hiding place, plucking the spitball off of his mask and throwing it back at his middle cohort. Unfortunately he missed and it stuck to the wall instead.

“NO.” Shock snarled as she opened up the cage door, but the boys hurried in after her anyway - they almost never went to town without all three of them except when one of them was in too bad of shape to go, and that didn’t happen very often anymore now that Oogie was dead and gone and no longer beating them black and green on a semi-regular basis. Shock glared at and turned her back to both of them but didn’t push them out of the cage. On the way down to the bridge, Lock snatched Barrel’s new cardboard mask off of his face and threw it out of the cage and into the pit, prompting Barrel to try and grab Lock’s mask to do the same. When Barrel had no success, Shock snatched it off of Lock’s face herself and threw it into the pit, then she gave Barrel a smirk and a high-five as Lock pouted over losing his new mask as well.

The walk to town felt like it took forever and Shock was about three seconds away from throttling Lock because he wouldn’t shut up about stupid stuff the entire trip. Finally he couldn’t ignore her complete and utter indifference to what he was saying anymore so he jogged up beside her and said, “What’s your problem? Are you still mad ‘cus you’re a crappy witch?” Shock felt her hackles go up but then she quickly regained her cool, once again refusing to let him think his words held any weight with her.

“No, I’m not mad, you’re just boring. Why don’t you ever talk about anything interesting? I guess you’re too dumb to have anything not-stupid to say.” she said snottily, and she was pleased by the angry look on his face. Barrel starting giggling, so Lock turned around and punched him in the arm but Barrel only giggled more. He loved it when Shock called Lock stupid and not himself.

They reached the main town and Shock headed straight for the apothecary shop with the boys trailing behind her, still unsure of what exactly they were doing here. “Where are we going?” asked Barrel, and Shock decided to answer him because he wasn’t being annoying like Lock was.

“The apothecary. I gotta steal some stuff. Why don’t you two morons cause a diversion and help me out?”

“Why should we help you? You’re being a jerk.” Lock said, crossing his arms stubbornly.

“You wanna eat tonight or not?” she threatened, and Lock backed down because he did indeed want to eat that night and he and Barrel were pretty terrible at cooking. They pushed open the shop door and the witch behind the counter looked up at the clanking of the doorbell - and as soon as she saw them she made a nasty face.

“What are _you_ three doing in here? Get out of my shop!” she growled, but the trick-or-treaters were unfazed by her hostility.

“We just wanna look at stuff, that’s all.” Lock said as innocently as he could, and he and Barrel strolled right up to the counter and started looking at the jars and vials of extremely expensive ingredients locked in the glass case. Lock made a mental note to try and pick the lock and steal some later - not because he wanted the ingredients, but just to see if he could get away with it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Shock sneaking quietly in a different direction and he quickly did his best to distract the shopkeeper. “Gosh, there sure is a lot of wicked-looking stuff in here. What’s this one?” he asked in his smoothest, most charming voice, pointing to a little crystal vial filled with a glittery sort of substance.

“Nothing that a good-for-nothing little devil like you needs to know about!” the witch snapped, but Lock was undeterred.

“What about this?” he persisted, now pointing to a squat clay jar with a skull and crossbones engraved on it.

“Something I’m gonna slip in your pumpkin juice if you don’t get out of here!” she said, then she turned to Barrel, who had stuck his hand in a basketful of shiny, polished round stones. “Get your grimy little paw out of there!” she shrieked, but Barrel only shoved his hand deeper into the basket with a big grin on his face. The smooth pebbles felt pretty neat and he wiggled his fingers around, wondering what they were used for.

Meanwhile, Shock quickly scanned the shelves for the needed ingredients and had shoved the sticklewort and warthog sebum into her bag, but she was still missing the warty toad blood and mucus - they had to be in the refrigerator against the wall a bit closer to the shopkeeper than she would have liked. She strolled casually back over that direction and gave Lock a significant look, which he passed on to Barrel. Barrel got the hint and tripped on purpose, knocking the basket to the ground and spilling the polished stones all over the floor. Quick as a flash, Shock quietly opened up the refrigerator door and found what she was looking for as the shopkeeper screeched in anger and scolded the little ghoul for his clumsiness. Both boys feigned an apology as they knelt on the floor and put the stones back in the basket - though each of them managed to sneak a stone into their pockets without her noticing - and by the time the witch looked back to check where the third trick-or-treater was, Shock had the blood and mucous in her sack and the refrigerator closed once more. “Get away from there, you little vandal!” the witch snarled, and Shock gave her the most innocent look she was capable of.

“What? I didn’t do anything.” she said sweetly, but the shopkeeper was unconvinced.

“Liar! Let me see what’s in your bag, I _know_ you stole something!”

“No way, I don’t have to! I didn’t take anything!” Shock replied, her sweet demeanor rapidly dissolving.

“C’mon, let’s get out of here. We don’t want anything in this crappy store anyway!” said Lock as he placed the last stone in the basket, and Barrel nodded firmly in agreement. They ignored the angry shouts from the shopkeeper as they hurried out the door and back towards home, not wanting to be stopped by Jack and forced to show what was in Shock’s bag. When they were safely out of town, Lock said: “What did you take?”

“Yeah, what’re you going to make?” Barrel asked eagerly, for he assumed that whatever she had stolen was for dinner that night.

“Oh, just a little of this and that… stuff to put in soup.” she lied, and fortunately that answer satisfied her cohorts. They weren’t all that interested in the details of cooking ingredients, all that mattered to them was whether or not it tasted good. She put the ingredients away and joined her friends in a game of darts - she would make her potion tonight when the boys were asleep.

Late that night, Shock crept out of her room with her spell book in hand and checked to see if her cohorts were awake. She heard Barrel snoring from all the way outside of his door and she knew that she was safe from him because he could sleep through just about anything. Lock wasn’t quite as heavy of a sleeper, however, so she very cautiously poked her head inside of his bedroom door to make sure he was asleep and found him passed out on his stomach on his ratty old mattress with his blankets all kicked aside like always. She then snuck to the kitchen and pulled out a small cauldron and the ingredients, flipped open the spell book to the marked page, and began her potion. It was a little bit tricky, but when she finished she felt pretty confident that she had done it correctly. She murmured the final incantation over the bubbling cauldron, turned off the stove and went to the bathroom to grab a wash rag while she waited for the potion to cool down. Then she slathered it all over her face and neck and let it sit for ten minutes like the book instructed, and then wiped it off with the rag before dumping the rest of the potion out the window and washing the cauldron. Then she snuck back to bed and went to sleep, excited and hopeful that she would wake up to find several scary, witchy warts on her face the next morning.

Morning came a bit too early since Shock had been up late last night, but she was so eager to see if her potion had worked that she hopped out of bed anyway and hurried to her cracked mirror to check - and her eyes widened in horror at what she saw: her face and neck were completely and utterly covered with gigantic warts. Every single centimeter of skin was full of them - indeed, her entire face and neck were basically one big wart and it looked awful - and not in a good way. She stared at herself for several long minutes, wondering what went wrong - and more importantly, what she was going to do to fix it. A wave of nausea bubbled up from deep in her gut at the realization that she was going to have to face her cohorts like this and explain what had happened, and she dreaded how badly they were going to tease her for it. She felt embarrassed and weak that she’d let Lock shame her into doing such a dumb thing and she crawled right back into bed and pulled the covers over her head, not quite ready to go out and let him and Barrel see her stupid mistake. She lay there for several hours feeling sorry for herself and wondering how on earth she was going to get rid of all the warts before she heard a knock on her door.

“Hey Shock, are you alive?” Barrel asked, and Shock knew that he was looking for breakfast.

“No!” she muffled from beneath her blankets.

“I’m hungry!” Barrel whined, and as much as she wanted to stay in bed forever she knew she’d have to get up soon. The boys would come get her if she made them wait for too long, so she might as well get it over with. She sighed in resignation and rolled out of bed.

“Fine, you big baby, I’ll be out in a sec. I gotta get dressed.” she grumbled, and Barrel skipped back down the hall to join Lock in the kitchen. She trudged down the hallway and took a deep breath before entering the kitchen, bracing herself for the merciless teasing that her cohorts would no doubt unleash as soon as she stepped through the door. Shock thought she’d at least _try_ to head them off at the pass, so the second she entered she said in her most deadly voice: “Don’t you idiots dare say a word!” But her threat was useless, and as soon as they registered her wart-ridden face Lock and Barrel both broke out into absolutely hysterical laughter.

“Holy crap, what happened to you!?” Barrel wheezed after several minutes, holding his stomach from laughing so much. Lock was laughing too hard to get any words out at all, he just slapped his palm against the table repeatedly in an attempt to express some of the absolute glee he was feeling at how stupid she looked. The humiliation was unbearable and Shock hoped that warts couldn’t blush because she felt like her face was on fire and right at that moment she wished that she could sink into the floor and vanish forever.

Shock didn’t answer him, she just stomped over to the icebox to get some leftover pumpkin pancakes for breakfast. Lock finally found his voice again and gasped, “You look soooo stupid! I can’t believe how dumb you look! What the heck did you do to yourself?”

“Shut up!” she snapped, though sadly she had to agree with him and she’d never been so embarrassed in all her life.

“You look crazy ugly! Did you try to do a wart spell or something?” he continued, and when she didn’t answer he grinned even wider. “You _did_ , didn’t you? HA!”

“I said SHUT UP!” she yelled and threw a cold pancake at him, hitting him squarely in the face. “Here’s your breakfast, moron!”

Lock picked the pancake out of his lap but kept on smirking. “Who’re you calling a moron? I’m not the one who screwed up and turned my head into a wart!”

Shock gave him her coldest, angriest glare, then threw a cold pancake at Barrel as well. “Here’s your breakfast, too!”

“You didn’t heat them up!” Barrel complained, but then he shrunk down in his seat at the murderous look she shot his way.

“Heat them up yourselves, you helpless babies! I’m tired of taking care of you jerks and I’m tired of you making fun of me!” she screamed, sounding more upset than they’d heard her sound in quite awhile and Lock and Barrel looked at one another, slightly surprised by her outburst. Didn’t she realize that it was all in good fun? How could anyone _not_ laugh at her face, it was just too hilarious. But she sounded so upset that it actually made Lock feel a little bit uncomfortable.

“Geez, I was only joking… I didn’t think you’d go and mess up your face about it.” he mumbled, and Shock _almost_ felt just a tiny bit better because it was the closest Lock had come to an apology in a very long time. But she was still too mad to forgive either one of them - especially him - so she just grabbed a pancake for herself and stomped out of the kitchen, not even bothering to heat up her own breakfast. “Where are you going now?” Lock hollered after her, and Shock wanted to ignore him but she wanted him to leave her alone even more.

“I’m going to see if Sally or one of the witches can fix it, and you’d better not follow me or I’ll kill you in your sleep!” she shouted, slamming the cage shut and descending down through the trap door, now dreading showing her warty face to everyone in town. But she didn’t know what else to do and she could only hope that Sally could fix it or that one of the older witches would take pity on her. Even though she barely had any appetite she ate her cold pancake on the way to town and headed straight for Dr. Finkelstein’s laboratory, trying to avoid everyone she passed. Unfortunately for Shock, however, she wasn’t strong enough to push open the laboratory doors and she was too short to reach the doorbell on her own. She tried pounding on the thick metal doors as hard as she could, but it barely made a sound. Finally she gave up and sat down miserably on the front steps, desperately hoping that someone would open the door sooner or later. She sat there for hours but nobody came or went, and eventually she realized that she was going to have to resort to asking a witch for help so she went to Helgamine’s house, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door. Helgamine had always been just a tiny bit less-mean to Shock than the other witches and if any of them would be willing to help, it would be her. While Shock waited for the door to open, all sorts of scary thoughts churned around in her head: what if Helgamine wouldn’t help her? Or what if she _couldn’t_ help her, even if she was willing to try? And if that was the case, what if Sally wasn’t able to get rid of the warts, either? Shock knew that Sally liked her enough to at least try to help, but while Sally was good with potions and herbs, she wasn’t a witch and Shock wasn’t sure if this kind of spell was one that Sally could fix. She almost felt like crying at the thought of being so ridiculously warty for the rest of her life, and when Helgamine finally answered the door Shock hesitantly looked up at her with big, desperate eyes, praying that the older witch would have mercy on her.

Helgamine normally would have told the little trick-or-treater to get lost, but she immediately saw the warty mess that now made up Shock’s face and neck and recognized the misery and fear in her expression even underneath all the warts. “What in Halloween happened to you?” she asked, though she had a pretty good idea what had happened. Usually if one of the children turned up at her doorstep it was to play a prank, but Shock looked so upset that this was clearly not a joke and Helgamine could only assume that a spell or potion had gone terribly wrong.

“I tried to make a wart potion and I did it wrong.” Shock mumbled, feeling just as humiliated now as she had when Lock and Barrel had made fun of her. “Can you help me? Please?”

The older witch raised an eyebrow and couldn’t help but quirk up one side of her mouth in a little smirk because it was rather amusing to see the annoying little trickster with a face full of excessive warts. However, Shock was also only a child and as much as she disliked the three trick-or-treaters, Helgamine wasn’t so cruel as to leave her this way. “Come inside, but don’t touch anything.” she said sternly, and Shock nodded and followed the older witch into the house. Helgamine sat the little witch down on a chair at the kitchen table and started pulling various ingredients out of the icebox and cupboards. “A child like you shouldn’t be messing around with potions.” she scolded, giving Shock a disapproving look before turning back to her cauldron. “And I imagine you stole the ingredients to mix this up, didn’t you? Warthog sebum isn’t easy to come by.” Shock didn’t say anything, too ashamed to reply. She was a little afraid that Helgamine would make something that would make the warts even worse (though she wasn’t sure that was possible) as revenge for stealing the ingredients and for all the pranks the children played on her, but Shock didn’t really have any other options. She was too scared to try making an antidote on her own - she figured that since she had screwed up the wart potion so badly in the first place that she would certainly screw up an antidote, too. She really was a failure of a witch, and to her horror she felt her eyes begin to water a tiny bit.

Within mere moments Helgamine had what Shock hoped was an antidote whipped up. “Give me your hands.” she said, and Shock held out her open palms to receive a glop of potion that the older witch spooned out of the cauldron. “Now rub that all over your face and neck.” Shock did as she was told and she couldn’t hold in a tiny sniffle. Helgamine noticed it and as she looked once more at the tiny witch’s sad little face as she spread the potion all over herself she actually felt a little bit of sympathy for the child. “Why on earth did you try to make a wart-enhancing potion? You could have burned your skin right off.” she asked in a slightly softer tone of voice, for she knew that Shock had never shown an ounce of magical abilities.

Shock felt too embarrassed to admit the truth, but there was really nothing else she could say so in a rare moment of candidness, she confessed. “I just wanted to make a potion like a real witch and I look ugly without any warts. But I’m a terrible witch, I mess everything up. I can’t do anything right.” she said, feeling completely depressed and waiting for Helgamine to laugh at her. But the older witch didn’t laugh, so Shock glanced up at her and was surprised to see a rather sympathetic look on her face.

“Now that’s just not true.” Helgamine said. She didn’t like Shock much at all, but it was still sad to hear her speaking so harshly about herself. It must be quite painful for a witch-child to not be able to perform magic, so the older witch decided to try and comfort her a bit. “I know for a fact that you are quite clever - otherwise you wouldn’t be able to cause as much trouble as you do.” As bad as Helgamine felt for her, frankly she was glad that Shock couldn’t perform magic because the damage she could have done would be catastrophic. “You can do all sorts of things very well - though I must say that I wish you couldn’t, because you and your little friends are far too good at causing mischief.” Shock brightened up a little bit at that - very rarely had anyone other than Oogie Boogie complimented them on their mischief-making, and it felt rather nice to hear from someone else that she was good at doing her job as a trick-or-treater. “And besides that, you don’t need any warts.” Helgamine continued, feeling even more sorry for the little magic-less witch. “You’re a very pretty little girl without them and you have plenty of other witchy features. Your skin is a very lovely green and your hair and teeth are very scary and just right. And you’ve got just about the most perfect witchy nose that I’ve ever seen.” Shock actually smiled at that, and if Helgamine hadn’t disliked her so much she might have found her a bit adorable at that moment. “Halloween doesn’t need another old hag like me,” she finished, hardly able to believe the next words she was about to say: “It needs trick-or-treaters, and that’s your job.”

Shock didn’t really know what to say, but fortunately any awkward silence was avoided by Helgamine handing her a wet rag and instructing her to wash off the antidote. When she’d removed every bit of the potion, Shock touched her face and found it as smooth and unblemished as it had been before. She was a little bit sad that the older witch hadn’t left at least one or two warts for her, but she wasn’t about to complain. “Thanks.” she said quietly, and Helgamine nodded and showed her to the door.

“Don’t you go messing with any more magic, you hear me?” Helgamine called after her as she scampered away. “And don’t you steal from our shop anymore if you know what’s good for you! Next time I’ll turn you into a toad and you’ll have all the warts you want!”

Shock returned to the treehouse feeling much better about herself. After all, it wasn’t every day that someone reminded her how good she was at mischief-making. On her way home she brainstormed various ideas for tricks and by the time she stepped out of the cage and into the living room she thought she had a pretty good idea for one: the solstice celebration was coming up and there was always lots of food there… and she thought it would be pretty funny if she made a cake and could figure out how to rig up some sort of device that would make it explode and get cake everywhere when someone cut into it. She found her cohorts sitting on the sofa, and they were apparently so bored that they were just taking turns hitting each other to see who could punch the hardest. They stopped hitting one another when they saw her grinning wickedly to herself with her smooth, wart-free face.

“Hey, you fixed your face!” Barrel said happily. While he had thought her super-warty face was pretty funny, he didn’t like it when Shock was so cranky - especially when she was too cranky to cook properly.

“Too bad, you look even uglier now than you did with all the warts.” Lock grinned, then he punched Barrel hard in the arm when the little ghoul wasn’t looking.

Shock only rolled her eyes at him. She was feeling too good about herself and too excited about her great prank idea to listen to him, plus she knew he was only teasing. She headed for the kitchen and pulled a beat-up, stained cookbook off the shelf to look for her favorite cake recipe. The boys came into the kitchen as well and while Barrel went to get a snack out of the cupboard, Lock looked over Shock’s shoulder at the cookbook. “What’re you gonna make?” he asked. The recipe looked like gibberish to him.

Shock gave him a wicked grin. “Alright, so I stink at making potions just as bad as you stink at making fires.” she said, but he wasn’t upset by her jab because he knew it was true and at least she’d insulted herself in the same sentence as she’d insulted him. “But I _do_ know how to bake a cake and pull a good prank. And that’s just what I’m gonna do now.”

Lock and Barrel grinned naughtily back at her and sat down at the table as she started working, eager to see what their clever cohort had thought up this time and sure that it was going to be good. Wart serum notwithstanding, her ideas were pretty much always good and they couldn’t wait to help in any way that they could.


	13. Five Fails and a Win - Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 1 of 5

Lock, Shock and Barrel were the finest trick-or-treaters that all of the worlds had ever known, human and holiday alike. When they weren’t playing or fighting they were thinking up and pulling all sorts of pranks on anyone and everyone who was unfortunate enough to attract their attention. More often than not they succeeded in their quest at scaring - or at least annoying - their targets, but there was still one Halloween Town citizen that they had yet to scare: the Master of Fright himself, Jack Skellington. To finally succeed at doing so would be the pinnacle of their achievements as trick-or-treaters, the crown jewel in their long list of accomplishments and victims, and they never stopped trying to find some way - any way - to frighten him.

One pleasantly bleak and dreary spring day the children sat in the living room of their treehouse, rummaging through the big trunk where they kept many of their prank devices. Jack had scolded them the day before for putting Pop-Its under the Mayor’s toilet seat and nearly giving the portly politician a heart attack when he sat down, so the trio were determined to get back at Jack for being such a mean, boring, party-pooper. Lock pulled out a large balloon, a sharp thumbtack and some tape, then said to his friends: “I have an idea! Let’s put these behind his door and when he opens it it’ll pop and scare him right out of his skin!”

“Skeletons don’t have skin, dummy!” Shock corrected him, but she was grinning excitedly. It sounded like a pretty good idea to her.

Lock waved his hand dismissively at her. “You know what I mean!” He shoved the balloon and tape in his pocket but kept the thumbtack in his hand, not wanting to risk poking himself through his clothes.

Barrel giggled and rubbed his hands together eagerly, his perpetual grin spreading even wider than usual. Successfully scaring Jack would be the best thing ever and he couldn’t wait to see if Lock’s idea would work. The trio grabbed their masks and requisite slingshots then hurried into their elevator cage and headed off to town, chattering about how funny it was going to be to see the mighty Pumpkin King shriek like a little baby.

It was the middle of the day so unless the children were very much mistaken, Jack should be in his office busily working on plans for next Halloween. They strolled casually through the town square and tried not to look like they were getting up to any trouble, ignoring the suspicious and hostile looks the townsfolk were giving them as they made their way towards the Pumpkin King’s office. Just as they were beginning to wonder how they were going to manage to sneak in to put their prank into place, Jack and the Mayor came walking out of the building, chatting about some no-doubt boring grown-up stuff. The children tried to look innocent when Jack and the Mayor caught sight of them, but neither adults were fooled and the Mayor’s face instantly swiveled to one of anger and dislike when he saw the trick-or-treaters.

“Good afternoon you three.” Jack said pleasantly, though he was scrutinizing them carefully. “Not up to too much mischief, I hope.”

“Of course not, Jack.” Lock said in his most innocent voice, though he still sounded naughty no matter how innocent he tried to appear.

“We’re just playing.” chimed in Barrel, putting his hands behind his back and shuffling one foot in an _‘aw shucks’_ sort of gesture.

“Yeah, we were thinking about maybe playing some hopscotch.” finished Shock, although she had no intention of playing such a dumb game for babies.

“Well that sounds like a very fun idea, don’t you agree, Mayor?” Jack said lightly, but the Mayor only grumbled a bit under his breath. “Just please use chalk this time instead of spray paint, understand?” Jack added in a slightly more stern tone, and all three of the children nodded. In truth they hadn’t brought any chalk or spray paint with them even if they had actually wanted to play hopscotch - which they didn’t. They watched as Jack and the Mayor headed off towards the market, no doubt intending to have lunch, and it was just the opening that they needed to sneak in and plant their trap. Once the grown-ups were out of sight the trick-or-treaters hurried to the office door… and found it was locked. But that didn’t matter one bit to the trio because Lock was extremely skilled at picking locks. He pulled out his handy lock-pick that he always carried with him and got to work while his cohorts kept watch. Within only a moment he had it open and all three of them crept inside when the coast was clear, locking the door behind them so that hopefully Jack and the Mayor would notice nothing amiss.

They went straight to Jack’s office - which was the largest one at the end of the hall - and snuck inside, giggling wickedly to themselves. Lock and Shock made Barrel start blowing up the enormous balloon while Lock taped the thumbtack to the back of the door and Shock strolled around the office looking for anything interesting to take or break. She stole a shiny silver fountain pen off of his desk and unscrewed the lightbulbs in the desk lamp and threw them in the trash. Then she tied an enormous, gnarled knot in the pull of his window blinds and dropped a bunch of loose staples on the floor and ground them into the carpet with her foot. Finally Barrel got the balloon fully inflated and Lock took it from him and taped it to the wall behind the door, lining it up perfectly to the thumbtack so that when Jack opened the door it would send the sharp point of the thumbtack right into the balloon and result in a loud _‘POP’_ that would hopefully give him a good fright. All that was left to do was watch and wait.

Waiting was one of their least favorite things to do, so they took a bunch of papers off of Jack’s desk - most of which had writing on them already - and began drawing ugly, unflattering portraits of everyone in town with the fancy pen that Shock had stolen. They kept quiet, their keen ears listening for any indication of his return and after awhile they finally heard the sound of footsteps coming closer. They ducked behind the desk and poked their heads out just enough to watch Jack walk into their trap, putting their little hands over their mouths to muffle their giggles. The doorknob turned and the door creaked, then Jack stepped all the way into the room and pushed the door open far enough to send the thumbtack right into the balloon and it popped with a loud _‘BANG!’_ … but Jack didn’t even blink and the children couldn’t remember the last time they’d felt so let down.

“Nice try, you three!” he said cheerily, for as far as the trick-or-treaters pranks went this was a relatively harmless one. “What happened to playing hopscotch?” he teased, and the children groaned in disappointment.

“That didn’t scare you at _all_?” Lock asked in disbelief, his tail drooping sadly on the floor.

“ _Obviously_ it didn’t scare him, he didn’t even jump, bat-brain!” Shock sneered at him, and Lock gave her a dirty look.

“Really? Not even a little?” Barrel asked sheepishly, feeling so depressed that all he wanted to do now was go home and eat candy until he fell asleep.

“I’m afraid not.” Jack said with a wide, bony grin. “You’re going to have to try a little harder than that!” He knew it was probably a mistake to encourage them, but playing tricks was part of their job, after all, so far be it from Jack to squelch their hopes and creativity entirely. The children grumbled and trudged towards the exit, but before they could leave Jack said, “Please clean up your mess behind the door!” and they did so as quickly as they could, wanting to get out of there before Jack noticed that they had scribbled all over his important papers.

  
Back at the treehouse the trio sat around and pouted over their failure, eating candy and wondering where their prank had gone wrong. “Maybe it wasn’t loud enough?” wondered Shock, tossing Jack’s fountain pen into the air with one hand and eating a chocolate bar with her other.

“Maybe…” Lock conceded, laying on his stomach and scratching a skull and crossbones into one of the floorboards with a knife. He had a neat stack of chocolate-peanut-butter cups beside him and he popped one into his mouth after scratching each bone.

“Can we use something louder?” asked Barrel, his voice muffled around the lollipop he was sucking on.

“Like what?” Lock said crankily. He was still annoyed that his idea hadn’t worked.

“I think we have an air horn in the trunk.” said Shock with her mouth full of chocolate, and at last a devious grin spread across Lock’s face. The balloon failure was instantly forgotten as he considered Shock’s idea. Air horns were so loud that surely they would scare Jack right out of his pants this time! He threw a peanut-butter cup at his younger cohort and ordered:

“Go look and see!”

Barrel immediately crawled over to the trunk and poked his head inside, then rifled through the various firecrackers, hand buzzers, whoopee-cushions, fake vomit, mousetraps, dead bats, shrunken heads and other such things until he found what he was looking for. “Ta-da!” he announced happily as he held the air horn aloft, and his friends both cackled wickedly. Tomorrow was another day, and another chance to try and get a reaction out of boring old Jack.


	14. Five Fails and a Win - Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of 5

Just about an hour before dawn the trick-or-treaters made their way to town with their air horn in hand. They had all taken a nap early that evening so that they could be awake now, plus their excitement at pulling their prank had them bubbling with energy despite the early hour. They figured that their odds of scaring Jack would be best if they could get him first thing in the morning as he came in to work, because surely he wouldn’t expect them to be up early enough to set up a new joke in his office so soon after the balloon incident. They broke quietly into the building and then again into his office, and once they were inside Lock decided that they’d just push the air horn button when Jack entered the room but Shock snatched it out of his hands and pulled some duct tape out of her pocket. “What’re you doing?” Lock demanded. He hadn’t even noticed that she’d brought tape with her.

“Watch and learn, twerps!” she said arrogantly as she knelt down beside Jack’s desk chair, and the boys watched as she loosened the knob that adjusted the chair height and taped the air horn to the chair in such a way that when Jack sat down the horn would go off and hopefully give him the fright of his afterlife.

“Nice!” Lock exclaimed. He had no idea where she’d learned about office-chair-mechanics but he had to admit that having it go off when Jack sat down was an even better idea than just pushing the button themselves. Barrel giggled and Shock gave her cohorts a sly smile, then she looked around the office for a good place for them to hide and watch the show, since staying behind the desk wasn’t an option this time. Really the only place they could go was the coat closet, so they piled inside of it and waited, listening to the crowing of the skeletal rooster as the sun came up. The closet wasn’t very large and it was a tight fit and soon it was very warm from their combined body heat and breath. That plus the early hour made them feel quite sleepy and eventually they all nodded off against each others shoulders until the opening and closing of the office door startled them awake - their victim had arrived.

They each pressed an eye against the crack in the closet door and watched with bated breath as Jack set his briefcase and thermos on his desk and finally sat down. The air horn went off with an absolutely deafening blare and it was so sudden and loud that all three of the children couldn’t help but jump a little themselves… but infuriatingly, yet again Jack barely reacted. At least he blinked this time unlike with the balloon, but he stayed sitting down and he just looked directly at the closet as the air horn continued to blare. It seemed like he was looking right through the doors at the disappointed trick-or-treaters and they squirmed uncomfortably under his gaze as the air horn finally ran out and quieted like a sad trombone. Once the room was silent Jack’s mouth quirked up into an amused little smile. “I know you’re in there.” he chuckled, and the trio piled back out of the closet, grumbling and shoving one another crankily. “It was a valiant effort and I applaud your dedication in waking up so early, but you might want to try a different tactic besides progressively louder noisemakers. Those work better on werewolves and others with much more sensitive hearing than myself.” he said, and the children all made a mental note to use their next air horn on Dennis instead of rotten old Jack. They trudged towards the exit but paused when Jack said, “By the way, regarding those papers you drew on yesterday…” and at that the trick-or-treaters immediately scurried out the door without a word. He didn’t sound _that_ mad and if he was really that upset about it he would come and get them, but they definitely weren’t going to voluntarily stick around and see what punishment he might dole out.

…………

“Okay, so obviously we need more than just something noisy.” said Shock that evening as she fixed dinner for the three of them.

“Right. He needs to see something along with hearing something.” Lock agreed as she plopped some rat stroganoff on his plate.

“Like what?” asked Barrel, holding out his plate for Shock to serve him some next.

“Well, it’s hard to go wrong with just jumping out and yelling _‘boo’_.” she suggested, sitting down to join her cohorts.

“Ooh, I’ve got an idea!” Lock said with his mouth full. “It looked like Barrel can fit in one of those big desk drawers, I bet if we cram him in there he can scare Jack when that old bone-brain opens it!”

Barrel grinned so widely he could barely keep his food in his mouth because it was very rare for his cohorts to suggest that he be the primary prankster. He was super-excited to try it, even if it did involve being crammed into a desk drawer.

“Good idea!” Shock agreed. “But we should wait a week so Jack thinks we’re done trying to get him. He’s too on the alert right now, we gotta catch him really off guard.”

“Yeah, okay.” Lock said. He hated the idea of waiting, but he knew that she was probably right.

Barrel didn’t really like the idea of waiting either, but he decided to make the best of it by practicing being crammed into small places. All that week he let his cohorts force him into progressively smaller spaces and leave him there for awhile: the toy trunk, the ammo box, the bathroom and kitchen cupboards, the trash can and even the oven - as well as anything else they could find to stuff him into. After the week was up and Barrel felt like an expert at being squished into small spaces the children waited until they saw Jack leave for lunch, then they snuck into his office yet again. It took some effort on Lock and Shock’s part and some rather uncomfortable contorting on Barrel’s part, but eventually they got him enclosed within one of the desk drawers after emptying it of it’s file folders. Then Lock and Shock hid in the closet once more - along with the displaced folders - just barely getting themselves concealed before Jack re-entered the room. The children waited for Jack to open the drawer, tense with anticipation and sure that their plan would work this time… but unbeknownst to them, the drawer they had chosen was not one that Jack regularly used - and tragically, several hours passed without him even glancing at the little ghoul’s hiding place. Lock was about three seconds away from just jumping out of the closet and yelling _‘BOO’_ himself, but then there was a knock on Jack’s door and the Mayor came in, babbling about some sort of boring something-or-other. Apparently whatever it was required the Pumpkin King’s immediate attention and he left with the Mayor, turning off the lights and closing the door behind him. Lock and Shock looked at one another and while they were barely able to see in the dark closet, they could see well enough to recognize the disgruntled expressions on each other’s faces.

“Dang it.” Lock muttered, and Shock just sighed in frustration.

“Uh… guys?” came Barrel’s muffled voice from inside the desk. “I kinda can’t breath.” This was the longest he’d been kept in such tight quarters even after all of his practice that week and his compressed little lungs were starting to run out of air.

“Let’s just leave him in there.” Lock grumbled, misdirecting his irritation onto Barrel.

“Don’t be an idiot. It’s not his fault your idea stunk.” Shock muttered right back, pushing open the closet door and going to rescue her littlest cohort.

“You’re the one who actually thought jumping out and yelling _‘boo’_ would work! That doesn’t work on _anyone_!” Lock sneered as he followed her out of the closet.

“Then why’d you go along with it, dummy?” Shock taunted him as she started trying to pry Barrel out of the drawer. Lock didn’t have an answer to that, so he just stuck out his tongue and turned his back to her, crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently until Barrel was finally free from his prison.


	15. Five Fails and a Win - Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 3 of 5

“Okay, clearly his office isn’t working. We gotta _really_ get him off guard somehow. Someplace where he’s really vulnerable…” said Shock the next morning at breakfast and while Barrel didn’t have any idea where that might be, Lock knew there was only one place that fit that description.

“We gotta do it in his house.” he said, setting his jaw resolutely. In truth, the idea of breaking into the Pumpkin King’s home scared him a tiny bit, but he was starting to feel desperate at this point - his little trickster heart would never be content until they’d frightened the Master of Fright and he would do whatever it took to accomplish it. Shock nodded, equally resolute and equally a little nervous about breaking and entering into this particular citizen’s home, but it simply had to be done.

Barrel’s round eyes got even rounder, because the idea of breaking into Jack’s house scared him much more than just a tiny bit. He swallowed his huge bite of Beetle-Crunch with Marshmallows cereal and asked hesitantly, “Really?” The Mayor was one thing, but the Pumpkin King? Barrel liked a good fright, but Jack could be just too scary sometimes.

“Don’t be a baby.” Lock sneered, expertly hiding his own nervousness. “I know exactly what to do and I’ll take care of it so you can just hide like a little scaredy cat.” and Barrel was so glad to hear that he didn’t have to do anything this time that he didn’t even care that Lock had called him a baby and a scaredy cat.

Shock looked at Lock suspiciously. “What are you going to do?” she asked, hoping it wasn’t anything too stupid.

“I’m not telling, you’ll just have to wait and see.” he said in his most confident voice even though he hadn’t really worked it out yet. Shock rolled her eyes but decided not to press the matter right at the moment. Step one was just getting in to Jack’s house at all.

  
Over the next three weeks the trick-or-treaters embarked on an elaborate information-gathering mission. They staked out and watched Jack’s house like little hawks, taking careful note of when he left and when he returned, keeping a tally of and analyzing anytime he deviated from the usual patterns and trying to reduce their risk of being caught as much as possible. One week into their surveillance Shock and Barrel kept watch while Lock attempted to pick the lock on the back door. It was actually tricky enough to give him a challenge and he was glad they were practicing now because he wouldn’t have been able to do it on his first try once they were finally ready to go inside. Finally on the third week Shock and Lock ventured into the manor, leaving Barrel outside to keep a lookout. They had a set of walkie-talkies so that Barrel could sound the alarm if today was one of the days where Jack strayed from his usual pattern and the little devil and witch very cautiously crept into the back room, waiting for any sign of a security system and preparing to run. Shock had only ever been inside the front entryway and parlor of Skellington Manor, but Lock had actually been upstairs once when he and Barrel were forced to spend the night there while she was stuck at Dr. Finkelstein’s laboratory, recovering from nearly blowing herself up with a bomb - so Lock led the way up the the long, steep stairwell. Lock and Barrel had stayed in the guest bedroom, but they decided that was probably not the best place to hide because who knew how often Jack used that room? They considered the bathroom, but there weren’t really any good places to hide in there except behind the shower curtain and it was rather translucent so they worried that he might see them. So they kept poking their heads into doors until they found one that looked like his library. They knew Jack liked to read and there were plenty of books on the desk and by the armchair that looked like they’d been recently opened, so they thought that perhaps this would be a good place to try and surprise him - plus there were plenty of bookcases to hide behind and a very large coffin-shaped wardrobe that didn’t have much in it and was big enough for them to squeeze into. They were extremely careful not to touch anything or leave any trace that they’d been there - their prank would be spoiled if Jack suspected they’d been in his house.

At the end of the third week they finally felt as prepared as they were going to get, so about an hour before Jack was due home from the office the trio snuck in through the back door and up to the library like they’d practiced. Shock had continually pestered Lock about what his supposedly brilliant idea was and he continually deflected her question until they were standing inside the library. “Okay, here’s the plan:” he said, finally ready to share his idea since he had actually only clarified the details right at that moment. “You two hide in the coffin, I’m gonna climb on top of this bookshelf and then jump on his head and yell at the same time!” He pointed to a very tall, very deep bookcase that was high and deep enough that it probably would indeed hide him if he pressed close enough to the shelf and wall.

Barrel’s jaw dropped. “Are you crazy?”

“What? I’ve jumped off taller things, it’s no big deal.” Lock said carelessly, but that wasn’t what was worrying Barrel.

“But not on Jack’s head!”

Shock, on the other hand, thought it wasn’t a bad plan. Lock was indeed good at jumping and this way if it actually made Jack mad instead of - or in addition to - frightened, they could just blame Lock and he’d be the one in trouble. Plus if he jumped and missed and splatted on the floor, that would be pretty funny too. “Sounds good to me!” she said, and opened up the coffin wardrobe. Lock grinned and began climbing up the tall bookcase, being very careful not to disturb any books and give away his location. Barrel followed Shock into the coffin, still feeling a tiny bit unsure but rapidly warming to the idea of seeing what would happen. After all, it had been pretty funny when Lock jumped off a roof onto Behemoth’s wide shoulders and pulled the axe right out of his head, so this would probably be even funnier.

The children once again found themselves waiting for far too long. Shock and Barrel wrote swear words on the inside walls of the wardrobe since Shock had thought to bring a flashlight this time and Barrel had a marker in his pocket, while Lock lay on top of the bookcase staring at the ceiling and daydreaming about how fun it would be to have a rocket-launcher. Finally they heard footsteps in the hall and Lock immediately rolled over onto his stomach so he could just barely peek over the edge of the bookcase and Shock and Barrel put their eyes to the crack of the wardrobe to watch the show. Jack strode into the room and set his briefcase on a side table, then walked in the direction of the armchair while loosening his tie and humming a little to himself. He didn’t seem to notice Lock at all so the little devil silently moved into a crouching position, the end of his tail twitching like a stalking cat as Jack came nearer and nearer. His cohorts held their breath from inside the coffin as they waited for Lock to pounce and Lock held his breath as well, preparing himself for the moment of truth and praying that Jack wouldn’t murder him - though if he managed to frighten Jack before getting murdered then it would be worth it. Jack finally passed beneath Lock’s hiding place and as soon as his back was turned the little devil launched himself off of the bookcase with all of the power his little legs contained while simultaneously letting out the most blood-curdling scream he was capable of. Shock and Barrel watched with equal parts glee and terror as their middle cohort screamed like a banshee and flew through the air down towards the back of Jack’s head like one of the many bats they’d knocked out of the sky with their slingshots… but before Lock could land on his target, two long, bony arms snapped up as quick as lightening and caught him around his waist, instantly stopping his momentum and holding him aloft as though he were a little red basketball. It happened so quickly that none of the children immediately registered what had happened, but when they saw the smirk on Jack’s face Shock and Barrel groaned and Lock seemed to deflate, all of his tightly-coiled energy fizzling out and his little arms, legs and tail drooping.

“I will never cease to be impressed by your athleticism and daring, Lock.” Jack chuckled, and while Lock was pleased with the compliment he was mostly disappointed that he had yet again failed in his quest to scare the Pumpkin King.

“UGH.” he groaned as Jack brought him down and set him on the floor, and Jack chuckled even more.

“Where are the others?” he asked, and Shock and Barrel reluctantly came out of the coffin. Jack looked at their disappointed little faces and even though he wasn’t thrilled that they had finally broken into his house, he still had to admire their bravery and determination.

“Whyyyyyy?” Lock whined, and Jack looked down at him with an amused expression.

“Why what?”

“Why are you so hard to scare?” piped up Barrel. If this didn’t work, then he had no idea what would.

“Well, I’m not called the Master of Fright for nothing.” Jack said kindly, but the children all grumbled. “Don’t be sad, I’m sure you’ll get me one of these days! Now, let me get you snack.” he said even more kindly still, for he did feel bad for them. He’d had no idea that they were in his house so he was indeed quite impressed with how hard they must have worked to set this up. The trio wanted to refuse for the sake of their pride, but they’d been stuck in that room for quite some time and were feeling a bit hungry so they gave up and let Jack feed them some milk and cookies before they went back home to pout for the rest of the night.


	16. Five Fails and a Win - Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 4 of 5

Things were getting a bit depressing at the treehouse and the children lay low for quite some time trying to regroup and regain their confidence, all three of them wracking their brains for possible ideas.

"If we can't scare him, we can at least annoy him!" Lock announced one day, and he pointed to a rather large ball-and-chain in the corner of the living room. Oogie Boogie had given it to Shock on her fifth birthday and hobbling the boys with it was one of her favorite pastimes.

"What are you thinking?" she asked, for she wasn't sure which direction Lock's crazed imagination was taking him this time… and Barrel had no clue what Lock was imagining whatsoever.

"We can put this around his leg and he'll have to drag it around all day and then beg us to take it off!" he grinned wickedly, his pointed teeth gleaming as he held up the ball-and-chain's key that he'd stolen from Shock's room earlier.

"How are we gonna do that?" asked Barrel, and Lock's grin faltered a bit because he hadn't thought that part through yet.

Shock snatched the key right out of his hand. "I'll do it! This is gonna be a much more delicate operation than just jumping off a bookshelf like a big, loud moron." she said snottily, and Lock glared at her. "We just have to sneak into his house again and hide under his bed, then when he gets up in the morning I'll put it around his ankle as soon as he puts his feet on the floor!" Lock wished he had a better idea than hers to get back at her for calling him a moron, but unfortunately he didn't so he just nodded and told his younger cohort to go get the ball-and-chain. Barrel had been giggling but he stopped at that, though he did as he was told because he didn't want Lock to punch him.

"It's too heavy!" he whined, trying to drag the heavy iron ball towards the elevator cage and both of his cohorts scoffed at him.

"You're such a weakling!" Lock mocked him.

"Yeah, you can't do anything by yourself!" Shock said meanly, and Barrel furrowed his brow and frowned.

"I can too!" he protested, but he couldn't think of any good examples to back up his assertion. After enjoying watching Barrel struggle for awhile, Lock finally helped him put the ball-and-chain into a thick burlap sack and drag it into the elevator while Shock packed up some snacks - it was going to be a long night spent under Jack's bed and she didn't want them to get hungry before morning came. They made their way slowly to Skellington Manor once more and Lock got the back door open a bit quicker than he had the last time, though it was still a more difficult lock than most he had dealt with. It was very hard work getting the heavy iron ball-and-chain all the way up the steep, towering staircase, for Jack's bedroom was at the very tip-top of the house. It took every ounce of the children's very limited self-control not to touch or break anything in the large, circular room filled with all sorts of fascinating stuff - not because they particularly cared about Jack's belongings, but just because they didn't want to give any indication that they had ventured as far as his bedroom. After looking at everything interesting in the room they sat on the floor on the side of the bed farthest from the door to eat their snacks, but soon they were so bored that they just couldn't help running down to the library and sneaking several books to read while they waited. Even Lock read quietly, because while it wasn't favorite thing to do, it was still better than just sitting there staring into space while they waited for Jack to come home and go to sleep.

The sun set, the moon rose, owls hooted and the children saw bats flapping erratically past the windows and they began wondering if Jack would ever come home, when they finally heard the creak of the stairs just outside the door. They quickly scooted under the bed as quietly as they could and Shock had just barely grabbed the books and snacks to hide them as well when Jack came into the room. The trick-or-treaters could only see his feet as he walked to the dresser and they had to work very hard not to snicker as it appeared that he was changing into his pale beige pajamas, because the thought of Jack or any grown-up without clothes on was truly hilarious and gross. They kept as still as possible, barely daring to breath as Jack got into bed and the mattress dipped a bit but fortunately stayed clear of their little heads. And now the long night stretched out in front of them and they only hoped that the wait would be worth it in the end.

The children took turns keeping awake because the risk of one of them - particularly Barrel or Shock - snoring and possibly waking up Jack was just too dangerous. Plus they had to make sure that they didn't sleep longer than Jack did, because if he got out of bed and they missed their chance to get the ball-and-chain around his ankle they would have to try all over again. Lock kept first watch while his cohorts went to sleep, and Shock was careful to lay on her side because she tended to snore quite loudly if she slept on her back. Barrel almost always snored no matter what position he slept in, so Lock had to frequently pinch his little upturned nose shut to make him breath through his mouth instead. After several hours Lock shook Barrel awake and went to sleep himself, and several hours after that Barrel woke up Shock. The sun began to come up and as the weak, orangish light streamed through the tall windows Shock then woke up both of her cohorts - their moment had almost arrived.

She took the heavy manacle in hand and made sure it was open and ready to be snapped around their victim's leg in an instant - she would have to be quick and there was no room for error. Adrenaline was already starting to course through her and she could feel Lock practically quivering with anticipation since he was pressed up close against her side. Barrel was on her other side with all of his fingers stuffed in his mouth, feeling anxious but also trying to keep from giggling. He knew all too well how annoying it was to be chained to that heavy iron ball, having frequently been locked into it himself - and while it wasn't as good as scaring him would have been, annoying Jack would suffice for the time being. At last the mattress shifted and creaked and they all three held their breaths… and then Jack's two bony feet swung off of the bed and onto the floor. Quick as a flash, Shock reached out and snapped the manacle closed right around his left ankle with a metallic _'clank'_ and the children all immediately started laughing, unable to keep quiet any longer.

"Gotcha!" Lock shouted triumphantly as he scooted out from under the bed on his tummy and his cohorts followed, all three looking incredibly proud of themselves. Jack was quiet for a moment, trying to determine the best response: while they hadn't startled him whatsoever and he usually didn't mind their more harmless pranks, he was quite displeased that they had snuck all the way into his bedroom and apparently camped out under his bed all night. The library trick had been amusing, but certain boundaries needed to be respected, even by trick-or-treaters. On the other hand, clearly their intention had been to annoy him and therefore acting annoyed would make them feel they had succeeded and would positively re-enforce such behavior in the future. Frightening them with a very scary face and roar was always effective, but going all out with that seemed a little bit overkill for this situation. Finally he decided his best option was to act unimpressed with their prank and frighten them just enough to discourage them from sneaking into his bedroom again.

"Not quite." he said lightly, and the children watched in dismay as Jack pulled the leg of his pajamas all the way up to his thigh, then easily separated his leg at the knee and slid the manacle right off the end of his shinbone.

"Crap." Lock muttered, and Shock gave him an angry look as Jack snapped his leg back together.

"You _know_ that skeletons can just take themselves apart!" she snarled at him. "So of _course_ your stupid idea wasn't gonna work! We waited under there all night for no reason!" She was feeling incredibly cranky from not getting much sleep.

"Yeah, well _you_ know that, too, so why'd you go along with it, huh? You big dummy!" Lock growled right back, and Shock was so annoyed by the truth in his words that she grabbed his neck and began throttling him. Lock was just about to punch her in the side of the head when Jack grabbed them both.

"That's enough, you two!" he roared in a very scary voice as he pulled the fighting children apart. Jack knew they played rough, but he still didn't like watching them hurt one another right in front of him - especially not first thing in the morning when he wasn't even out of bed yet. All three trick-or-treaters shrunk back in terror - they had wanted to annoy him, but not make him so mad that he yelled at them in such a frightening manner. "While once again I applaud your determination and creativity - even though it failed miserably this time - breaking into my bedroom is not appropriate." he said very sternly, and while the trio didn't care about _'appropriateness'_ , having their abject failure pointed out made them cringe and they really didn't want Jack to roar at them again. "You are NOT to do so _ever_ again. Do you understand?" he said even more sternly, and they all nodded frantically.

"Yes, Jack." they said in unison, unable to look the Pumpkin King directly in his angry eye sockets.

"Good. Now, run along back home, you three." he said with an unmistakable air of finality, and the children were about to run out of the room and back down the stairs as fast as they could when he pointed to the ball-and-chain and added, "Ah-ah! You're forgetting something." Beneath Jack's watchful glare they stuffed their useless prank device into the burlap sack and dragged it back out of the bedroom and down the stairs, all working together so they could get out of there as quickly as possible and hurry back home with their figurative - and in Lock's case, literal - tails between their legs.


	17. Five Fails and a Win - Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 5 of 5

Lock, Shock and Barrel didn’t even leave their treehouse for the next week, too afraid and ashamed to show their faces to the Pumpkin King again anytime soon. Eventually they ran out of food and were forced to go outside, so in an effort to bolster their wounded pride they took their walking tub to town and spent all day carefully stealing food. Each successful heist brought more and more of their self-confidence back, and once the tub was loaded up Lock and Shock forced Barrel to take it back to the treehouse while they sat on a low stone wall and ate their stolen rat-meat pastry pies. They watched the various goings-on in the town square and slouched down a bit when they saw Jack, but then they relaxed when he only gave them a polite nod instead of an angry look. They saw Gustov the bat-demon boy run over towards him, no doubt intending to show or say something to the Pumpkin King, but the tip of one of his wings that he used for walking caught in a hole in the ground and he went sprawling face-first onto the cobblestones. Lock and Shock laughed raucously and Jack gave them a disapproving look as he quickly knelt to help Gustov off of the ground, but the trick-or-treaters didn’t care because someone falling down was funny no matter what. As they watched Jack comfort the sniffling little bat boy, Shock suddenly had a thought.

“Hey, you know what I just realized?” she murmured to her cohort.

“That you’re ugly and dumb?” Lock snickered, and Shock slapped the half-eaten meat pie right out of his hand. “Hey!” he said angrily, but she ignored him.

“When have we ever seen Jack scared, _ever_?”

Lock had been about to try and shove her off of the wall for ruining the rest of his lunch, but her question made him pause… when _had_ they ever seen Jack look scared? Certainly never from any of their own lousy prank attempts, and since Jack couldn’t really get injured he never seemed to be afraid of hurting himself… not even Oogie Boogie had scared Jack, and there was nobody else scarier than Oogie had been. Suddenly Lock felt like his heart had just sunk right into his gut because clearly Jack wasn’t afraid of anything and their attempts at scaring him were eternally doomed to fail. “Never.” he said sadly.

“Nuh-uh, stupid, I saw him get scared once.” she said, and while Lock didn’t appreciate being called stupid, her voice sounded excited and he was curious what she was talking about.

“When, you liar!?” he sneered, jealous that he might have missed such a monumental occasion.

“When you got your tail cut off. You probably didn’t notice because you were too busy crying like a little baby, but I’ve never seen Jack look so scared. I don’t know why, because who cares about your dumb old tail, but he was really worried, I could tell.”

Now Lock _really_ wanted to push her off of the wall, but this information was so fascinating that he decided beating her up could wait. “Really?” he asked. He had been so focused on his own pain and fear that it hadn’t really occurred to him that Jack may have been worried about him during that awful accident… but Jack _had_ been the one to carry and comfort him, and Jack _hadn’t_ let Dr. Finkelstein do anything bad to him during the surgery, and Jack _had_ said that he cared about the trick-or-treaters and didn’t want them to get hurt… so perhaps Shock was on to something after all. As he sat there pondering this, Barrel finally returned.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” he asked, scrambling up onto the wall beside his cohorts.

“You remember when smarty-pants over here blew herself up with her crappy bomb?” Lock said, and Shock gave him a sour look.

“Yeah.” Barrel answered. How could he forget? It was one of the scariest things he’d ever experienced.

“Do you remember Jack being scared then?” Lock questioned, and Barrel paused…

“Actually, yeah, I guess he did seem pretty worried.” the little ghoul replied, though he wasn’t really sure if _‘scared’_ and _‘worried’_ were the same thing… but then he kept thinking and decided that they basically were. After all, he certainly felt scared when he worried that they might not have anything to eat, and he used to feel scared when he worried that Oogie Boogie might hit him or his cohorts. They seemed to be pretty much the same feeling to him. “Why?” he asked, not sure of what point Lock was trying to make.

“Because that’s the only time Jack’s ever been scared, when one of us gets hurt.” Shock answered. Barrel just looked at her blankly, so she rolled her eyes and added: “So, if we’re trying to scare him and loud noises and jumping out and trying to surprise him isn’t working, then the only thing that will work is if one of us gets hurt or dies or something!”

Barrel immediately started scooting away from her - if one of them was going to be hurt or killed in order to scare Jack then it was definitely going to be himself, but Shock grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back. “Don’t worry, I have an idea, and you don’t even have to get squished in a drawer this time!” she snickered, and they all three ran back home to get started.

The children stayed busy for days getting ready: they ripped a sleeve off of Barrel’s shirt and a leg off of Lock’s pants - which the boys were reluctant to do until Shock promised to sew them back on once their prank was complete. They stuffed the empty sleeve and leg with scraps of newspaper and fabric and since Barrel was the best artist they put him to work making a fake hand and foot out of clay, trying to make them look as real as possible. He painted the hand to look like his own and put one of Lock’s curly-toed shoes on the fake foot and made adjustments until the artificial limbs looked as close to the real thing as they could get. While Barrel was sculpting and painting, Lock and Shock orchestrated an elaborate heist of gallons and gallons of blood from the vampire’s supply while the undead brothers were all asleep in their coffins. Finally they were prepared.

They snuck to town late that night after everyone else was asleep and headed back to the guillotine in the main square. The children had mostly steered clear of it since Lock had accidentally amputated his tail by running beneath its falling blade, and they were much more careful this time. They gently released the rope until it was all the way on the ground, then placed the fake arm and leg on the ground on one side of the blade while Lock and Barrel lay down on the other. They tried to position themselves so that Barrel’s arm was hidden behind his body and Lock’s leg was hidden behind Barrel, and then Shock poured the gallons of blood all over the fake limbs and the boys where the stumps would have been if they’d actually chopped themselves up. She also added a little blood to the edge of the guillotine blade, and when she stepped back it truly looked like a horrific accident had taken place. She grinned wickedly as she poured some blood on her own hands and dress before stashing the empty blood bags out of sight and the boys wished they could see how gruesome they looked right at that moment. “How does it look?” whispered Lock.

“Perfect!” she whispered back. “Now, you have to try and look dead! No laughing or grinning! Don’t even breath!”

“How are we not supposed to breath, dummy?” Lock hissed, but she ignored him.

“Okay, ready? I’m gonna go get Jack!” she grinned, rubbing her hands together and actually bouncing up and down on her heels with excitement. _Surely_ this would do the trick! She threw her hat on the ground and ran towards Jack’s house as fast as she could, trying to look frazzled and terrified so that her fear would be believable. The boys knew enough about corpses to know that freshly dead bodies didn’t have their eyes closed, but keeping them open and trying not to blink would be difficult. So they settled on sort of half-closing their eyes so they could see what was happening and blink when Jack was looking away from their faces. Barrel had to work harder than he’d ever worked in his life not to grin, but Lock was fully immersed in his role of fresh corpse and he let his half-closed eyes go out of focus and his tongue just barely loll out of his slackened mouth, waiting eagerly for Shock and their victim to return.

“Jack, JACK!” Shock started screaming as soon as she reached the gates of Skellington Manor, calling upon all of her acting skills and praying that she wouldn’t blow it. She had a good enough imagination to think about how sad she would be if her cohorts actually _did_ chop themselves up - she’d had a little bit of practice at that when Lock lost his tail, after all - so she was even able to force out a few tears. She leapt up and grabbed ahold of the doorbell pull with her blood-covered hands, continuing to scream and cry loudly until the door finally flew open - it took several minutes, which Shock had been expecting since she now knew that Jack’s bedroom was at the very tip-top of the house. Before Jack could even say a single word, Shock cried out: “Lock and Barrel got chopped up in the guillotine! I don’t know if they’re dead!! Their arm and leg came off and there’s blood everywhere!!!” Jack gasped in horror - it appeared that the day had finally arrived when one (or in this case, two) of them hurt themselves to the point where they might not be salvageable. He scooped up the hysterical little witch and took off towards the town square, trying to get more information out of her.

“What happened?” he asked, trying not to sound as scared as he felt.

“I told them not to do it but they wanted to play with it and I don’t know what happened but they pushed each other and the rope came loose and they’re so stupid and now they’re dead and there’s blood everywhere!” she cried in one long run-on sentence. She thought that it would be suspicious if she sounded too articulate. “They’re so stupid they never listen!!!” she wailed and shoved her face into Jack’s neck. “They’re dead and I’m gonna be all alone!” she sobbed, and she sounded so pathetic that Jack’s heart broke a little.

“You won’t be alone, everything will be alright.” Jack lied, holding her a little tighter and trying not to think about what he would do if she was correct - one lone trick-or-treater would be a tragedy and he couldn’t even begin to think of how to handle poor Shock if her friends were dead. They sped around the corner into the town square and Jack stopped right in his tracks when he saw the horrific scene that the children had set up. “Oh god, no!” he gasped, and the fear in his voice was absolutely unmistakable. Shock kept crying just to keep herself from laughing, and the boys felt like they were about to explode if they didn’t get to move soon. Jack sprinted towards them and put Shock on the ground, and for once in his existence he had absolutely no idea what to do… how could so much blood have come out of such tiny bodies? How could they possibly still be alive? He was just about to pick them both up at the same time and rush them to Dr. Finkelstein anyway just in case the doctor could save them… but then through his panic he noticed that the boys were laying in somewhat odd positions. His eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to speak but Lock noticed the way he paused so he thought it was the time to act for their prank to have maximum impact.

“GOTCHA!” the little devil yelled as he reached out his bloody hands towards Jack, and Barrel quickly did the same as he started giggling uncontrollably.

“We got you good, Jack!” Shock cackled from behind him, clapping her hands in delight.

“Were you scared?” Barrel asked eagerly, and rarely had Jack felt such a cacophony of emotions all at once. The most powerful feeling was relief that they weren’t actually hurt or - Halloween forbid - dead. The next was anger at them for playing such a cruel trick and frightening him so badly… however, scaring him had been the whole idea and scaring was the entire point of Halloween, after all. Fear was fear, no matter how it was accomplished and he was actually extremely impressed that they had finally managed to really, truly scare him. Their set-up and acting had been extremely convincing, and while Jack never, _ever_ wanted them to frighten him in this way again, he had to give credit where credit was due.

“I’ve never been so scared in all my existence!” he exclaimed, playing it up a tiny bit just to watch the pride and joy spread across the children’s giggling faces. “You three really terrified me, I thought that we’d lost two of our finest trick-or-treaters!” And with that he pulled Lock and Barrel into a tight hug, much to their surprise.

“Gross, Jack, stop hugging us!” Lock muffled against Jack’s chest, and Shock laughed at them until Jack reached out and snatched her up into the hug as well.

“Ew!” she shrieked, but Jack only laughed and squeezed them all tighter for several more seconds before finally letting them go.

“What marvelous acting jobs! And your set-up is fantastic, you really had me fooled!” he said, sounding very impressed, and the trio felt like they would burst with pride from all of this praise that the Master of Fright was lavishing upon them. “How did you make these?” he continued, pointing to the fake limbs, and Lock and Barrel scurried over to pick up their own arm and leg to show him.

“I made these!” Barrel said excitedly, showing off the sculpted hand and foot. Jack picked them up and looked them over - they really were quite impressive, he thought.

“Wonderful, Barrel! I had no idea you were such a talented artist! Maybe you should sculpt the next art installation in town square!”

Barrel was so overjoyed that he didn’t even know how to express himself, he just grinned so wide that it looked like his head would split in two and he hopped up and down, clutching his fingers together in front of him. He had successfully scared Jack _and_ was getting a compliment on his artistic skills? He’d never felt so happy for as long as he could remember.

“And me and Shock stole all the blood!” piped up Lock, feeling jealous of how much Barrel was getting complimented.

Jack had sussed out immediately that the blood had been stolen and he knew that he would need to discipline them for it later, but for now he didn’t want to spoil their fun and trample their victory. “Amazing! Where did you get it?”

“From the vampires!” Shock said, too eager for praise to really think through the fact that they were confessing to a robbery.

“That must have been difficult, I know how protective they are over their blood supply and how tricky it is to sneak past a vampire!” Jack said, and it was true. There was a reason he had chosen the trio to fetch Sandy Claws for him, after all.

“Nah, it wasn’t that hard!” Lock bragged, and Shock nodded proudly.

Jack chuckled. “Well, congratulations, you three. You now join the ranks of the very, _very, VERY_ few who have managed to frighten me! You should feel very proud.” He let them revel in their success for another moment, then said in a bit more serious tone, “That being said, please don’t ever do something like this again.” He paused, thinking about the best possible way to convince them to obey this request - he didn’t want to threaten them since they were only doing their job and he hated to burst their bubble. But on the other hand, telling them that their trick had scared him far too much would guarantee that they would try it again. He had to be clever and use their pride against them somehow. “After all, I know this trick of yours now. Fake body parts and stolen blood isn’t going to work on me again, got it?” he winked at them.

“You got it, Jack!” they all three snickered, keeping their little crossed fingers well-concealed behind them - just in case.

“Excellent.” Jack said, finally standing back up to his full height. “Now then, back to bed with you, and in the morning we’ll see about cleaning up this mess and apologizing to the vampire brothers.”

That wiped the smiles right off of the trick-or-treaters faces. They hadn’t considered any consequences of this prank past scaring Jack, but as the Pumpkin King strode away and they headed back to their treehouse covered in blood, carrying their fake limbs and laughing in triumph once more, they all decided that it was worth it.


	18. Scissors and Shaving Cream

It was another day and another fight between Lock and Shock, and Barrel sat on the floor to keep out of the way while his older cohorts battled over the T.V. remote on the sofa. While he usually enjoyed watching the two of them duke it out, it felt like they had already gotten into about twenty fights that day and now he just wanted to eat his dessert and watch television in peace. Unfortunately for him, that didn’t seem like it was going to happen anytime soon.

“I wanna watch ‘Brain-Eating Beach Mutants’! It’s my turn!” Lock yelled in Shock’s face, gripping the top of the remote with all his might.

“That movie is stupid, let’s watch ‘Attack of the Ninety-Foot Slobber-Monster’! And who cares if it’s your turn, I’m the oldest so I get to choose!” she yelled in his face right back, hanging onto the bottom of the remote as tightly as she could.

“Of course you wanna watch the dumb slobber-monster movie, because you’re a big dumb slobber-monster yourself!” Lock yelled even louder, and he tried to kick her without letting go of the remote.

Shock dodged his foot and yelled even louder still, “Shut up! That movie’s awesome, the monster spits acid that burns off people’s faces, don’t you know anything?” Then she kicked him back and was actually successful in knocking him right off of the sofa and onto Barrel.

“Hey!” Barrel frowned and tried to shove Lock off of him, feeling annoyed that his cohorts had just caused him to spill his caramel popcorn all over the floor. Lock slapped him in the back of the head for shoving him, then squinted menacingly at Shock with his sharp yellow eyes before launching himself off of the floor, determined to sock her in the nose for kicking him… but Shock had the tactical advantage from her position on the sofa and she kicked him right in the chest before he could even get close to her. He tried again, but this time she kicked him in the jaw and he fell all the way back onto the floor, clutching his face.

“OW! You made me bite my tongue!” he yelled, but Shock only laughed.

“Good! Now maybe you’ll shut up!” she said meanly as she turned the channel to ‘Attack of the Ninety-Foot Slobber Monster’.

Lock got up from the floor, then stuck his tongue out and tried to look down at it to see if it was bleeding… and of course it was. His teeth were just too sharp. He thought about trying to jump on her again but she was clearly prepared for it and he eyed her feet in their pointy, black leather boots carefully before deciding he was tired of being kicked. “FINE. We’ll watch your stupid slobber movie so you can see your mom on T.V.!” he snapped, but Shock just smirked in triumph. None of them even had mothers, so his insult didn’t upset her in the slightest.

Lock sulked all through the movie, huffing and snorting and pointing out everything that he thought was stupid about it, but his friends ignored him. Shock was just happy she had won, and Barrel was just happy to finally be eating his popcorn without interruption. He liked ‘Attack of the Ninety-Foot Slobber Monster’ just as much as he liked ‘Brain-Eating Beach Mutants’, so he would have been happy either way. When they were finally ready for bed they headed to their rooms, Lock glaring at Shock and her dumb, smug face the entire time. “Goodnight, loser!” she taunted him before disappearing inside of her room and that was the last straw. He would have to get revenge on her, and he knew just what to do.

He stayed awake for several hours until he was almost positive that his cohorts would be sleeping then he crept silently to Shock’s room, grabbing a sharp pair of scissors on the way. He put his ear to her door but clearly she wasn’t sleeping on her back because he didn’t hear her snoring. He very cautiously pushed the door open and he froze as it creaked somewhat loudly… but she didn’t wake up so he pushed it open just wide enough that he could slip through. Shock was curled up on her side in her little nest of blankets inside her inner tube bed and sleeping quite peacefully. Her hat was on the dresser and Lock tiptoed over to her, then held his breath as he ever-so-gently took a handful of her long, wiry hair and snipped it right off, as close to her head as he dared. He threw the hair on the floor so that it wouldn’t tickle her face and continued cutting as much off as he could access. When he’d just about finished that side of her head she sighed and rolled over, and he quickly pressed himself flat against the floor in case she woke up… but she just sighed again and stayed fast asleep. Snickering silently to himself, he mentally thanked her for rolling over and promptly cut the rest of her hair off, then he collected it off of the floor and tiptoed away. Back in his own room, he tied it into a bunch with a rubber band and set it by his bed - he had plans for it in the morning.

He made sure to wake up before she did so that she wouldn’t strangle him in his sleep, then took the hair with him and hid in the bathroom to wait for her to discover what he’d done. Shock woke up a bit later and the first thing she noticed was that her head felt a bit cool and drafty, and when she sat up she immediately realized what was wrong. She clutched her head only to find almost all of her hair cut to within an inch of her skull, with only a few longer strands that Lock had been unable to reach. She instantly knew who to blame and fury bubbled up inside of her like a volcano, finally erupting when she screamed at the top of her lungs: “LOCK!!!!!!!”

She yelled so loudly that Lock heard her from the bathroom and he poked his head outside the door and waited for her to come looking for him. When she stormed into the living room he strolled out to meet her. “Looking for this?” he smirked, holding the bunch of her hair aloft and striking a match against the wall with his other hand - then he brought the match up and the acrid scent of burning hair immediately filled the room.

“I’M GOING TO MURDER YOU, YOU TURD!” Shock screamed, and Lock cackled wildly as he dropped what was left of her burning hair and stomped it out with his foot, leaving a scorch mark on the floor. He took off running and once she caught up to him an epic fight took place that left them both quite battered and bruised, with several rips in their clothes and Shock ending up with a bloody nose and Lock with a sprained tail. Barrel casually kept tabs on them while he ate his breakfast and watched the morning cartoons. He was pretty sure that this was one of the longest-lasting physical fights they’d ever had and he was glad that he wasn’t a part of it. Shock tried to pull Lock’s hair out with her bare hands but didn’t have much success, but his scalp still hurt by the time they were both too exhausted to fight anymore. “You’re dead meat.” she muttered as she angrily shoved her hat onto her nearly-bald head as far as it would go, but Lock wasn’t scared. What was the worst she could do? He wasn’t a heavy sleeper like her and Barrel, so he felt completely confident that she couldn’t get him back like he’d gotten her.

Shock knew that Lock wasn’t a very heavy sleeper, but she also knew that he was inordinately proud of and fussy about his hair. He’d never said it out loud, but she was pretty sure that not having real horns like the grown-up devils bothered him so he made up for it by keeping his hair perfectly coiffed into sort of stylized horns so that he could get as close to that demonic look as possible. Clearly cutting his hair was the only way to truly get him back, but how to accomplish it was the question since she wasn’t confident that she could manage it without waking him up… but she had other tricks up her sleeve.

She wasn’t good at making magical potions - in fact, she was downright incapable of it - but that didn’t mean she didn’t have a certain amount of skill and knowledge when it came to herbs. She had done a lot of reading over the years and she knew that just a tiny bit of deadly nightshade would knock out even the lightest of sleepers. She had some tucked away in a jar at the back of a cupboard, so when she prepared dinner that night she would make sure that Lock got some. She figured the best way to guarantee that he was the only one who got poisoned was to make them all individual dinners, so she got to work early making little personal-sized meat, tuber and herb pies. They were a lot of work, but she knew it would be worth it in the end.

“That smells good.” Barrel said as he came into the kitchen and climbed up onto his chair. He had laughed at her mutilated hair until his face and stomach hurt as soon as he saw it that morning and she had given him a pretty good beating for it, but he didn’t care. It was just too hilarious and he wished he would have thought to do that prank himself. But as dinnertime crept closer he began exercising a little more self-restraint because he didn’t want to be eating plain dried beetles right out of the jar if he ticked her off too badly. “Wow, fancy!” he added as she set a pie in front of him. Shock’s cooking was usually pretty good, but she didn’t often take the time to do something quite this elaborate.

“Doesn’t smell that great to me.” said Lock as he strolled into the kitchen with a smirk on his face, still feeling pretty proud of himself about how dumb Shock looked without any hair. Any other time Shock would have smashed the pie right into his obnoxious, smirking face for being such an enormous jerk, but it was imperative that he actually eat it this time so she refrained.

“You can cook dinner yourself tomorrow, moron!” she snarled, dropping his poisoned pie roughly in front of him, and Barrel giggled. He wasn’t dumb enough to insult her cooking and risk going hungry. He chatted happily about this and that as he ate his pie, not really caring that Lock and Shock were too busy shooting each other nasty looks across the table to participate in the conversation. After dinner he went to the living room to draw, suck on a jawbreaker and watch T.V. - he’d swiped one of Shock’s anatomy books and was trying to copy some of the grosser-looking stuff for practice. Shock sat on the sofa and worked on her sewing, keeping Lock in her peripheral vision and waiting for the nightshade to kick in - and before too long his body seemed to relax and his head drooped a bit.

“Geez, I’m tired…” he mumbled, desperately trying to keep focused on the television but failing miserably.

“I’m not surprised. You worked really hard today being a gigantic piece of crap.” Shock muttered, but Lock only smiled naughtily before letting out an enormous yawn.

“I’m going to bed. G’night midget, ‘night, baldy.” he teased both of his cohorts as he headed for the hall. Barrel threw a crayon at him for calling him a midget and missed, but Shock ignored the insult and just smiled wickedly to herself. She’d have her revenge soon enough.

Lock barely made it into bed, he couldn’t ever remember feeling this tired and he skipped brushing his teeth and even changing into his pajamas - he just flopped down onto his ratty old mattress and immediately passed out into a deep, drugged, dreamless sleep. Shock waited for about twenty minutes before putting her sewing aside and walking to his room with her sharp fabric shears in hand. She needed to make sure he was good and unconscious, but not wait so long that the drug wore off and he woke up before she could get all of his precious hair cut off. She poked her head into his bedroom, then dropped her shears on the floor on purpose to see if he woke up… but he didn’t stir at all so she snickered and crept over to him. It was fortunate that he almost always slept on his stomach because she had easy access to most of his hair, and the first thing she did was grasp one of his faux horns and lop it right off with a satisfying ‘slice’. She did the same to the other and then worked on the rest of his closer-cropped hair, cutting it almost right down to the skin since she was confident that he wouldn’t wake up. He was quite bald after she was through and as she stood back and appraised him she realized there was more she could do: she very carefully brought the shears to his face and trimmed both of his eyebrows as close to the skin as she could as well, and when she was finished he looked so stupid that she couldn’t keep from snort-giggling out loud. She collected all of his dark red hair off of the floor, then went to the bathroom and with a feeling of deep satisfaction, dropped it into the toilet. She didn’t flush it, though - she wanted him to see where his precious hair had ended up. She and Barrel hung out in the living room for several more hours before going to bed themselves, and Shock went to sleep with a smile on her face and a baseball bat next to her bed - just in case Lock woke up before her and tried to kill her in her sleep.

Lock woke up the next day with a splitting headache, not knowing that it was the nightshade in his dinner that was making him feel like his brain was pounding against his skull. He reached his hands up to massage his temples and froze, and through his painful haze it took him a second to register the fact that he was just as bald as he’d made Shock the night before. His eyes widened in a panic as he brought his hands from his temples to his crown and his stomach clenched when he felt that the closest things he had to horns were gone. Half of him wanted to cry, but the other half was so furious that if he had been able to set things on fire like the grown-up devils he probably would have accidentally sent his mattress up in flames right then and there. “SHOCK!!!” he screamed, his rage overpowering his headache as he leapt up from his bed and flung open his bedroom door. He stormed out of the hall and into the living room to find Barrel on the floor, trying and failing to roast ants with a magnifying glass in the bright noon sunlight streaming through the broken windows. Apparently Lock had slept in quite a bit later than he usually did, especially considering how early he went to bed that night.

Barrel took one look at him and started laughing uncontrollably, rolling onto his side and clutching his stomach as he dropped the magnifying glass. Shock had told him what she’d done to Lock at breakfast that morning so he wasn’t surprised, but it was even funnier-looking than he’d imagined it would be and he was glad it had been a few hours since he’d eaten or else he just might barf from laughing so hard. Lock was quivering with rage and embarrassment - he felt completely naked without his hair and he glared down at his younger cohort who was having the laugh of his life at his expense. “SHUT UP, BARREL!” he snarled, clenching his fists and angrily swishing his tail, but Barrel only laughed harder so Lock tackled him and started pounding him with his fists as hard as he could, just to release some of the rage he was feeling - he would have plenty of rage left over for Shock as soon as he tracked her down.

“Ow, OW, I give up!” Barrel cried after several hard punches, but Lock gave him two more for good measure before finally letting up.

“Where’s Shock?” he hissed, grabbing Barrel by his shirt collar.

“I think she’s in the bathroom!” Barrel answered, holding his hands up to his face in case Lock punched him again and trying not to giggle. The truth was that Shock had told Barrel to tell him that as soon as she’d heard Lock scream her name. He didn’t know why, but he thought it was wise to do as she said. Lock punched him one more time in the stomach and Barrel wheezed as Lock got off of him and rushed to the bathroom, ready to unleash some pain on that rotten witch who had mutilated him. Right at that second he didn’t even care if she was on the toilet or in the bathtub, he’d beat her up with his eyes closed if he had to. But Shock wasn’t in the bathroom at all and when he kicked open the door he found it empty, but there was a note taped to the crooked, cracked mirror. He went over to it, but before he could read it he saw that even his eyebrows were shorn close to the skin and he got a full view of just how stupid he looked. He gnashed his pointy teeth and read the note: ‘Missing something? Look in the toilet, butthead. Love, Shock.’ Against his better judgement, Lock did as the note said and he hadn’t thought it was possible to feel any angrier but what he found in the toilet did it: all of his beautiful red hair was floating in the water. He couldn’t even bring himself to flush it, he just threw the note on the floor and sprinted out of the room to give Shock the beating of her life.

She was waiting for him in the living room now, baseball bat in hand. “How do you like it, huh? Now you don’t even look like a devil at all, just some pasty white idiot!” she mocked him, and his face started turning almost as red as his remaining hair. He ran towards her and she swung the bat, but he was too quick and he managed to dodge her swing, drop into a roll and tackle her at the knees, forcing her to drop the bat. She shrieked and fell, hitting her head on the floor with a ‘thunk’ as Lock scrambled up her body and began hitting her with all of his might. She recovered herself and shoved two fingers right up his pointed nose but it barely slowed him down so she reached for his neck - she couldn’t hit as hard as he could, so strangling him was usually her favorite method of hurting him and if she could hang on tight enough for long enough, eventually he ran out of air and had to back off. The only thing better than strangling him was yanking his tail or kicking him in the crotch, but unfortunately he wasn’t positioned in such a way that she could do it at the moment. This fight was even more brutal than their one the previous day and Barrel hid behind the sofa and watched them, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire. It was still hilarious, though, watching his two bald cohorts beat the holy heck out of one another and he laughed every time one of them landed a good hit.

“I can’t believe you did that!” Lock managed to rasp through her grip on his throat with his last bit of breath.

“You deserved it, you jerk!! You’re the one who started it by cutting off my hair first!” she yelled between his punches, but then he slapped her hard across the face and it enraged her so much that she managed to force her leg in between his and kicked upwards as hard as she could. He made a weird sort of choking gasp at that, his airway too constricted to yelp in pain like he usually did when she kicked him there and he mentally cursed himself for not paying enough attention to where her legs were. He fell to the side and Shock let go of his neck and scrambled backwards away from him, rubbing her cheek and watching as he squinted in agony, coughing and gasping while holding his crotch with both hands. It was highly satisfying and Barrel laughed loudly from behind the sofa because watching Lock get kicked in the crotch was one of the funniest things ever and Barrel loved it whenever Shock managed to do it.

“Shut up, Barrel!” Lock coughed. That rotten little ghoul wasn’t helping anything and Lock made a mental note to beat on him some more later.

“Now we’re even!” Shock panted. “Truce?” She really hoped that he would agree to a truce because he’d punched and slapped her quite hard all over for two days in a row now and she really didn’t want to get hit anymore. Him getting kicked in the crotch usually ended their fights, and fortunately it looked like this time was no exception.

“FINE.” he gritted between his teeth. In truth he kind of wanted to keep beating her up, but he didn’t want to risk her kicking him again so soon after she’d just done it.

“Can I flush the toilet now? I gotta pee.” Barrel giggled and Lock glared at him even though none of this was Barrel’s fault.

“Sure, go for it.” Shock said as she picked her hat up off of the floor and stuffed it onto her bald head. Barrel left the living room, giggling all the way, and suddenly Lock had a brilliant thought: instead of beating his younger cohort up again, he’d give him a taste of what he and Shock were suffering through.

“Hey, I have an idea.” he whispered to Shock, and when he told her she cackled wickedly in agreement. Few things brought the two of them together like teaming up against their littlest cohort.

That night after dinner and several games of darts and poker, Lock and Shock secretly made a plan to meet in the hallway an hour after they all went to bed. Barrel usually fell asleep pretty fast, so an hour should be more than sufficient to guarantee he was deep in dreamland. Shock hadn’t bothered to slip him any deadly nightshade because he could sleep through just about anything, and when she put her ear to his door she heard the soft sound of him snoring. She had her fabric shears in hand, but then Lock came down the dim hallway, his yellow eyes glowing a tiny bit and she saw the glint of something metallic in his hands. “What is that?” she whispered, and he grinned wickedly and held up a razor and a can of shaving cream. Usually they used the shaving cream in pranks - such as squeezing out their victims toothpaste tube and filling it with shaving cream instead - but this time Lock planned to use it for its intended purpose. “Nice!” Shock snickered, and gently pushed the bedroom door open.

Shock very carefully clipped Barrel’s green hair as short as she could get it, then Lock gently lathered up some of the cream on Barrel’s head and smoothly ran the razor over his scalp until he was as bald as a billiard ball. The little ghoul sighed and smiled a bit in his sleep, no doubt dreaming about swimming in mountains of candy, and his cohorts had to work hard not to laugh too loudly. It was one of the funniest things either of them had ever seen, and they gave each other a very quiet high-five before creeping back out of the room, looking forward to Barrel being just as upset the next morning as they had been after discovering their own shorn locks. And the best part was that Barrel couldn’t fight both of them at the same time, so he wouldn’t be able to punish them too effectively. They both went back to their own rooms and slept soundly, waiting for the shriek of their littlest cohort to wake them.

Barrel awoke the next morning feeling quite well-rested, although he’d had weird dreams about icy cold bugs crawling all over his head. Then he realized that his head felt rather cool and he reached up and found nothing but smooth skin. “Aw, man…” he grumbled to himself. He really should have expected this - usually if Lock and Shock did something awful to one another they tried to find a way to loop him in on it as well. He got out of bed and headed for the bathroom to see how bad it looked, and it appeared that Lock and Shock were still asleep. He checked himself in the cracked bathroom mirror, and actually it didn’t look too bad, he thought. He preferred his short green hair, but being bald wasn’t the worst thing. He turned his head from side to side to see it from all angles, then grinned to himself because he realized that his cohorts would be quite annoyed that he didn’t really care all that much about being shaved. Certainly they were expecting him to be just as mad as they had been, and Barrel very much looked forward to disappointing them. He wasn’t nearly as vain as Lock or as uptight as Shock, so he casually went to the kitchen without a care in the world to fix himself a bowl of cereal and wait for his cohorts to join him.

Eventually both of them poked their heads into the kitchen, quite confused as to why Barrel hadn’t come barging into either one of their bedrooms, and they were indeed disappointed to find him sitting at the table eating his breakfast and looking perfectly happy - albeit a bit ridiculous with no hair. “Hey stupid, notice anything?” Lock tried, not quite ready to accept the fact that their prank had failed to have the desired effect.

“Yup!” he said cheerfully, rubbing one hand against his perfectly smooth head. “I kinda like it… makes my head feel a little cold, though.” He grinned at them and took another big bite of cereal and Lock and Shock looked at one another in disbelief.

“Well crap.” Shock muttered, and Lock shook his head.

“We should have known.” he said. “Barrel looks super-stupid all the time, so of course looking even stupider isn’t gonna bug him.”

“Whatever, I don’t look as stupid as you guys!” Barrel said happily, completely unfazed by Lock’s insult. “At least my hair’s nice and smooth, and not all choppy and dumb like yours!”

“You don’t have any hair at all, idiot!” Shock corrected him, but Barrel just shrugged. Honestly, she could be so nitpicky about insignificant little details sometimes.

“Just you wait, shrimp. We’ll find something to do to you!” Lock threatened as he sat down and took the cereal box for himself, but then he realized he didn’t have a bowl or spoon. Shock rolled her eyes and got two of each out of the cupboards and tossed him one set before sitting down herself.

Barrel just grinned some more. “Okay, if you say so.” he said, sounding completely unconcerned, and his cohorts began eating their breakfast as well, grumbling and muttering about Barrel’s easygoing nature and the disappointing start to their day.


	19. Pranks, Pumpkins... and Parents

The children knelt low on the cold, stone floor as they waited to hear why their master had called them down.  The Boogie Man loomed over them, huge and intimidating, and they hoped that they had managed to stay on his good side lately.  Happily, he smiled down at them and said, “Ol’ Oogie got you three a present for being the best little henchmen in Halloween Town.  Now how about that?”

“Thank you, Mr. Oogie Boogie!” they said in unison as they got to their feet, and they couldn’t wait to see what it was because Oogie’s gifts were almost always terrific: either fun, violent toys, or candy and other delicious kinds of food that they could rarely get on their own.

“Bring it over here, little man.” Oogie chuckled, and Barrel excitedly ran over to the enormous trunk in the corner where Oogie usually stored gifts for them.  He lifted up the heavy lid and poked his head inside, and his already wide, toothy grin got even wider when he saw what was in there:  several bundles of dynamite.

“Wicked!” he said gleefully as he picked up all of the bundles, and there were so many that they filled his arms all the way up to under his chin.  He started running back to Oogie and his cohorts… but then tragically - as had happened so many times before - his cumbersome feet got in the way and he tripped.  He fell several feet forward and the dynamite flew out of his arms and into the air, then landed on the floor and started rolling away in different directions.  Barrel hit his chin and one elbow on the ground hard - and while it hurt a lot, that wasn’t the worst part because he knew what was most likely coming next.

Normally Lock and Shock laughed whenever Barrel (or anyone, for that matter) fell down, but when it happened in front of Oogie they always waited to see how the Boogie Man would react.  Sometimes he would laugh jokingly and they would laugh along with him, but other times he would get mean and Lock and Shock didn’t like to laugh at their littlest cohort when Oogie was being mean… and sadly this was one of those times.  His face twisted into a frightening snarl as he put his hands on his hips and in only a few steps he was towering right over the unfortunate little ghoul.

“I swear to Halloween, I’ve never known a creature as clumsy and useless as you!  You’re so dumb it’s a miracle you even to know how to breath, let alone walk.  Is that any way to treat your new toys?”  And with that, he kicked the nearest bundle of dynamite right into Barrel’s face.  It hit him hard in the eye and this pain plus the humiliation of Oogie Boogie’s insults made his lip begin to quiver, and before he could stop himself a few tears leaked down his round little cheeks.  “Well, get up and get ‘em, ya’ good-for-nothin’ ghoul.” Oogie continued.  “You’re lucky I don’t just put ‘em right back in that trunk.  But _these_ two didn’t screw up…” he nodded to Lock and Shock, “…so you just hand ‘em right over to your pals when you pick ‘em all up.”  Barrel grabbed the nearby bundle of dynamite and got shakily to his feet to collect the others, but as soon as he turned around Oogie kicked him right in the back, sending him sprawling once more.  Lock and Shock couldn’t help but wince as Barrel hit the ground a second time with a surprised _‘oof!’_ , then they tensed up as Oogie headed back towards them.  They watched Barrel pick up all of the dynamite, then he very carefully walked over and handed half of the bundles to Lock and the other half to Shock, just as he was told.

Oogie looked down in disgust at Barrel’s tearful face.  “Quit crying and take a lesson from Lock over here.  He never cries no matter what, do ya’, devil boy?” he said, and before Lock could even begin to think of a reply Oogie unexpectedly smacked him right in the face.  It hurt, but it definitely wasn’t the hardest he’d ever been hit by the Boogie Man and while he stumbled a bit he managed to hang onto the dynamite and stay on his feet.  “See?  Didn’t even blink an eye.  Tough kid, ain’t ‘cha, Lock?” Oogie chortled, and while Lock knew that this was supposed to be a compliment, somehow it didn’t make him feel very good this time.

Shock and Barrel had both flinched when Oogie’s huge, rough burlap hand made contact with their middle cohort’s face, and Shock was almost positive that she was going to be next… and unfortunately she was right.  “And you, princess.  Well, I never quite know what you’re gonna do, but come to think of it, I haven’t seen you cry like baby Barrel over here in a long, long time.  Think you’re as tough as devil boy?”  Shock didn’t know how to answer that question, and she didn’t get a chance to try before Oogie smacked her in the face as well.  He hit her even harder than he’d hit Lock, and it probably would have knocked her off of her feet if she hadn’t been somewhat expecting it.  She managed to stay upright and refused to cry even as she felt a trickle of blood work its way down from her right nostril, and she kept her lips tightly shut so that the blood wouldn’t get into her mouth.

“Impressive!  And who says ladies ain’t as tough as the boys, hmm?  Certainly not ol’ Oogie, and certainly not with the likes of _him_ around.” he said, his voice turning mean towards the end of the sentence as he nodded in Barrel’s direction.  Barrel hung his head and desperately tried to hold in his tears and stop his lip from quivering, praying for this humiliation to end.

“Now then.” Oogie said as he lumbered over to his chair and sat down, and without being told the children immediately pushed his footstool over to him.  “Tell ol’ Oogie the buzz about town, like good little henchmen.”  They began telling him all about the latest plans for Halloween - to the best of their knowledge, at least, since the three of them didn’t really pay all that much attention to anything besides trick-or-treating… but they hadn’t gotten very far before Oogie interrupted them: “Hold that big ol’ witchy nose of your shut, princess.” he said rather nastily.  “You get blood all over my floor and you’re gonna be in a world of hurt.  Your nose won’t be the only thing that’s bleeding.”  Shock quickly pinched her nostrils closed without a word, and after that she let Lock do all the talking because she would just sound too stupid talking with her nose pinched shut.

Barrel also stayed quiet, but at least he finally got his sniffling under control.  Why did Oogie have to be so mean sometimes?  Barrel supposed he must deserve it, being the smallest and clumsiest and stupidest among his cohorts… but then again, Shock was super-smart and Lock wasn’t clumsy at all, but it didn’t save them from being beaten and yelled at, too.  Then Oogie sent them home with the dynamite and a week’s worth of delicious food, patted them each on the head and called them excellent little henchmen again.  It was all so confusing.

 

“You okay?” Shock asked her littlest friend when Oogie had finally dismissed them.  She hated it when anybody beat up or humiliated him except for her and Lock.

“Yeah.” Barrel said quietly.  It was always so embarrassing to have his clumsiness and stupidity pointed out in front of his older cohorts.  “Are you?” He looked at the dried-up blood crusted around her nostril and on her upper lip.

“Yeah, it’s no big deal.  You hit me _way_ harder than that yesterday!” she smiled as she wiped her nose and mouth with her sleeve.  She hoped that would cheer him up a little, and she was glad when he grinned just a tiny bit.

“I know what’ll make you feel better!” Lock said suddenly, wanting to forget what had just happened as quickly as possible.  “Let’s get a bunch of pumpkins from the patch across town, stuff a dynamite stick in each of them, then blow them up on the town hall stage!”

“Good idea!” agreed Shock as the trap doors opened and they stepped out of the cage and into their living room.  “I’ll go get a knife and bag for the pumpkins, you two unwrap a few sticks of dynamite to take with us.”

“You’re so bossy!” Lock grumbled after her even though she’d given perfectly reasonable directions, and she merely stuck her tongue out at him before heading to the kitchen to put away the food Oogie had given them and retrieve a carving knife and a large burlap sack.  “She’s so bossy, isn’t she?” Lock then said to his littlest cohort, and Barrel grinned and nodded, glad to have someone else’s faults pointed out besides his own.

“I heard that, morons!” Shock hollered from the kitchen, but the boys only giggled together as they unwrapped a bundle of dynamite.

 

The trio donned their masks and headed for town, chattering excitedly about how mad everyone would be when they found exploded pumpkin guts all over inside town hall, when they saw Gustov walking along down a side street all by himself and playing with a paddle ball.  “Psst!” hissed Shock as she elbowed both of her cohorts in the ribs.  “Let’s go smack that little twerp around.”  Lock and Barrel snickered in agreement - nothing helped ease the pain of a bad encounter with the Boogie Man like beating up someone else.  They snuck after him as silently as ghosts, and when they were about as close to him as they could get without worrying about him noticing them, Lock shouted:

“Hey flappy!  Where do you think you’re going?”

Anxiety instantly transformed the little bat boy’s face as he spun around to face them, and they startled him so badly that he actually dropped his paddle ball.  “I’m going to go play with Ethan.” he mumbled, because not answering a question from the Boogie Boys would result in certain punishment.

“Why the heck would you wanna play with that stinky, bloated gut-bucket?” Shock said meanly, and her cohorts laughed.

“’Cus he’s having a party…” Gustov mumbled, but then he instantly regretted telling the truth.  Then he added, “My mom says I’m not supposed to talk to you.”

“Oh yeah?  Why not?” Shock sneered as she took a few steps closer to him.  Even though Lock and Barrel were the only friends she really wanted, there was just the tiniest little part of her that felt angry about the fact that none of the other kids wanted to be her friend.  The trio had never been invited to a party before.

“She said because you’re bad news, and you don’t have any parents and you always cause trouble.  And nobody likes you!”

While the Boogie Boys were proud of causing trouble - it was their job, after all - being told that they weren’t good to be around because nobody liked them and they didn’t have parents stung a little bit more than they’d anticipated.  But they didn’t want Gustov to know how much his observation hurt, so Lock sneered, “Good!  We don’t want to hang out with some dumb, ugly little demon-thing like you!” but it wasn’t really the best insult, considering that Lock was a demon himself.

“Yeah, you can’t even walk right!  What’s the deal with your tiny, stupid little legs and arms?” Shock said in a very snotty voice, and Barrel nodded even though he actually thought it was kind of cool the way that Gustov could walk on his wingtips.  So he came up with a different way to insult the little bat boy:

“And why don’t you wear anything, anyway?”  Barrel used to like running around naked when he was a little toddler, but the other ghouls had put a stop to that before he went to live with Lock, Shock and Oogie full-time.  While sometimes he missed those carefree days, it just seemed weird for a creature as old as Gustov not to wear any clothes.

“Yeah, you’re always running around naked, that’s so gross!” Shock said in a tone of utter disgust.

“Yeah, nobody wants to see that, you sicko!” added Lock, and he was quite pleased with the upset expression on their victim’s face.  He turned to his cohorts with an evil smile, “Let’s do everyone a favor and give him some clothes!”  And with a matching evil smile of her own, Shock held up the empty sack they’d been planning to fill with pumpkins.

Gustov had a bad feeling that he knew what they were going to do next.  “I’m gonna tell Jack!  Then you’ll be in trouble!” he threatened and started to slowly back away, but before he could go anywhere Lock hauled off and punched him right in the mouth, knocking him off of his wingtips and onto the ground.  Shock and Barrel laughed loudly, as did Lock while they watched the little demon struggle to right himself again with his tiny, nearly-useless limbs.

“You gonna tell him that, too?  Or do I need to sock you again to make you change your mind?” Lock taunted, rubbing his knuckles threateningly with his other hand.  Then he stepped down hard onto one of Gustov’s wings and Shock stepped on his other and he yelped in pain.  Barrel wished there was a third wing for him to step on, too, but then he noticed Gustov’s tail and scurried forward between his cohorts to step on that instead.

“OW!” Gustov cried as Barrel’s wide foot crushed his tail, and when he cried out he noticed that it felt like at least two of his teeth were loose - he didn’t dare tell the Boogie Boys that, though, because they’d only make fun of him more - or more likely, try to knock them out completely.  “Okay, I won’t tell!” he whined as Shock ground the sole of her boot down harder into the membrane of his wing.

“Promise?” she sneered, grinding her foot so hard that Gustov felt his skin threatening to tear between her boot and the cobblestones.

“I promise, I swear!” he cried, and after scrutinizing him carefully for a few more seconds Shock finally stepped off of his wing, then Lock did the same and Barrel stepped off of his tail.  Gustov exhaled in relief, hoping that they were done tormenting him, but before he could try to get up again Lock suddenly shouted:

“Bag him!” and Shock leapt forward and pulled the sack down right over Gustov’s large, round head as far as it would go before being stopped by his wings.

“Hmmm…” she said once she’d shoved the little demon as far into the sack as she could.  “That didn’t really help much with the naked-thing.”

“Then let’s just stuff the rest of him in.” Lock said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and he grabbed both of the bat boy’s little legs and bent them upwards and tried to cram them into the sack as well while his cohorts laughed.  Gustov just lay there limply, waiting for the torture to end.  He knew that fighting back was useless so it was better to just take it and hope the trick-or-treaters got bored enough to leave him alone soon.

Just then, Barrel caught sight of Jack leaving the apothecary.  Fortunately the Pumpkin King hadn’t seen them yet, so he elbowed Shock and whispered, “Jack!”  Shock looked over Barrel’s head and saw that he was correct.

“Let’s beat it!” she hissed.

“You’ll get it even worse if you rat us out!” Lock threatened, and the three of them took off running towards the pumpkin patch across town, leaving the little bat boy on the ground with the sack on his head, several loose teeth, and bruises on his wings and tail.

 

They made it to the pumpkin patch without being caught, but now that they’d lost their bag they’d just have to each choose one pumpkin to place a dynamite stick in and carry them back to town.

“Why don’t we have parents?” Barrel asked quietly as he picked up the pumpkin he had chosen.  He couldn’t stop thinking about what Gustov had said, and he couldn’t remember much before Oogie Boogie.  He knew that the Boogie Man wasn’t actually their father - Oogie had said so many times - so he hoped that perhaps his older friends would know.

Shock shrugged.  “I don’t know.  Helgamine told me we just sort of showed up on our own.  Then we came to live with Oogie when you were still in diapers.”  She could just barely recall the day she and her friends were left at the Boogie Man’s lair all those years ago, though she couldn’t remember much before that very clearly anymore, either.

“Who needs parents anyway?” Lock sneered, stabbing his knife into a pumpkin over and over.  “If parents make you wimpy and weak and have to follow rules like all the other kids, then I don’t want ‘em.  Besides, Oogie’s pretty much our dad, and that’s good enough!” he said firmly, then kicked the pumpkin away because he’d stabbed it too many times to carry without getting goop all over his hands.  His cohorts nodded in agreement, and once they all had a stick of dynamite concealed inside of each of their pumpkins they headed back to town - hoping that Jack wouldn’t be waiting for them.

The pumpkin prank went off without a hitch.  Jack and Gustov were nowhere to be found by the time they returned and town hall was empty so they easily snuck inside and within a matter of minutes had a large part of the stage, surrounding walls and even the ceiling covered with pumpkin guts.  They only wished they could have carried more than just three pumpkins, but they still decided that losing their bag in such an amusing manner was worth it.  They allowed themselves a moment to survey the damage they had caused and have a good laugh, then hurried out the back door before anyone came to investigate the noise.

 

They returned to town several days later with a few more sticks of dynamite, this time planning to explode them beneath Dennis the werewolf’s back porch - it was looking a little rickety, so the children thought it wouldn’t take too much dynamite to make it fall down.  But just as they turned a corner, chattering and giggling to each other, they ran right into the tall, thin, imposing figure of the Pumpkin King himself.

“Hi Jack!” Barrel said cheerfully, masking his nervousness as he quickly hid the sticks of dynamite behind his back - his cohorts had made him carry it so they could try to just blame him if they got caught.  Jack had noticed the little ghoul was hiding something, but that wasn’t really what he wanted to talk to them about right now and he decided to let it slide this time.

“I’ve heard a very disturbing report about you three.”  He turned to Shock and said very sternly, “Gustov says that you stuffed him into a bag several days ago.” and Shock immediately began planning revenge on that stupid little demon for snitching on them.  Then he turned to Lock.  “And he also said that you punched him, Lock.  He had to have Dr. Finkelstein put three of his teeth back in.” Jack said in a very serious voice, and the three trick-or-treaters couldn’t help but snicker, Lock feeling very proud of how hard he had punched that annoying little bat boy.  “It’s not funny.” Jack said more seriously still, and the trio only stopped snickering because he began to look like he was about to make a very scary face and roar at them, and the only thing scarier than that was Oogie Boogie.

“Well if Dr. Finkelstein put them back in, then he’s alright, isn’t he?” Lock said smoothly.

“Yeah, Lock’s lost teeth a bunch of times, and he’s never cried about it.” said Shock.

“So it’s no big deal.” added Lock.

“We were just playing with him.” lied Barrel in his most innocent voice.  Inside he was thinking about the fact that if Gustov’s teeth hadn’t grown back in on their own like Lock’s did, did that mean that his own might not grow in either, if he ever managed to lose any?  Before he could ponder this further, Jack said angrily:

“If _that_ is the case - which I seriously doubt - then you’re playing much too roughly.  Punching is never okay, I don’t care what game you may be playing.  You need to apologize to Gustov.”

The trio groaned and rolled their eyes, but then backed down as Jack put his face even closer to them and furrowed his bony brow even more, his skeletal mouth turning down into a frightening grimace.  “Okay, okay, we’ll apologize.” Lock muttered, though he had no intention of apologizing unless Jack was physically there to make them do it.

The trio scurried away and Jack watched them go with a growing feeling of concern.  They were troublemakers, that was for sure, and while Jack allowed them a certain amount of leeway due to their jobs as trick-or-treaters, he was hearing increasing reports of them bullying the other children.  Exploding pumpkins in town hall was actually rather amusing, but bullying was not acceptable.  They always tried to pass it off as playing, but Jack wasn’t convinced.  It was true they were rough with one another, but clearly the other children in town didn’t want to play so rough and he had noticed the way they avoided the Boogie Boys.  He sighed and scratched his skull, not quite sure of why they were acting this way and what he could do to make it stop.  He was the Pumpkin King, not a child psychologist.  Surely bullying didn’t have to be a part of trick-or-treating… at least he hoped it didn’t.  Sometimes one never knew what exactly the humans were up to, and how that could affect the residents of Halloween Town.  But regardless of what the humans may or may not be doing, Jack had to at least do a little investigating of his own and for the first time since Lock, Shock and Barrel had gone to live with Oogie Boogie all those years ago, Jack decided it was time he paid the Boogie Man a visit.


	20. Pranks, Pumpkins... and Parents - epilogue

The next day the children knelt low on the cold, stone floor once again as they waited to hear why their master had called them down. “Get on up now, you three.” Oogie said sternly and the children got to their feet, feeling anxious about how serious he sounded. “Ol’ Bone-Daddy Jack came ‘round to see me this morning, did you know that?” The children shook their heads, their fear escalating rapidly. Considering the lecture that Jack had given them the day before and the fact that he’d never come to visit Oogie at home for as long as they could remember, this couldn’t be good news and a feeling of dread settled low in their bellies. “He told me that you three have been causing all sorts of trouble. Told me you beat up that little bat kid and made him lose some teeth. Is that true?” He put his hands on his hips and looked down at them with one raised brow, and the children bunched together in fear as they nodded - surely they were in for it now. “And did ol’ Bone-Man catch you in the act?”

“No.” Lock said quietly.

“Gustov must have told on us.” Shock added, not sure where Oogie was going with this line of questioning.

With a heavy heart and terror roiling in his stomach, Lock decided to take the fall for his cohorts as much as he could. After all, he was the one who had punched their victim and suggested they stuff him in the sack. “It was my fault.” he mumbled, taking a shaky step forward and bracing himself for the blow that would surely follow his confession. “I’m the one who punched him.”

Oogie leaned down right next to his face and Lock involuntarily flinched several times, waiting for Oogie to hit him… but he didn’t, he just said: “Do you think I don’t know that, devil boy? That old bonehead told me, and besides that, I already know you’re the one always haulin’ off and hittin’ everybody. Now then. What to do with you.” He stood back up to his full, terrifying height and Lock cowered even more. “King Jack says that punching is _‘unacceptable behavior.’_ ” he said, and Lock closed his eyes tightly, wishing that he would just hit him already and get it over with - and he didn’t see Oogie’s huge burlap face fold into a smile. “Well, not as far as ol’ Oogie is concerned, it ain’t!” he boomed in a very jovial voice, and he actually sounded proud. Lock cautiously cracked one eye open and Oogie barked out a laugh and slapped him on the back - but not too hard this time. “HA! I wish I coulda seen that! Don’t look so scared, you done good, devil boy! That’ll teach any creature to mess with Boogie’s Boys! And if anyone tattles on you again, then you just tell ‘em they’ll have to deal with _me!_ ”

The children glanced at one another, not quite sure of what they were hearing… but he sounded sincere so hesitant little grins began to spread across their faces. Oogie continued: “And stuffing him in a sack? And all three of you steppin’ on his wings and tail? And I heard about you puttin’ that dynamite to good use in the town hall, too. And all without gettin’ caught red-handed! You kids sure do make ol’ Oogie proud!” and now the children grinned openly and giggled a little bit. Nothing felt as good as genuine praise from the Boogie Man.

“In fact, I got you a little somethin’. Go on over and get it, little man, and try ta’ stay on your feet this time!” he chuckled, and there was absolutely no malice in his voice at all. Barrel hurried over to the trunk - much more cautiously than usual - and opened it up to find a whole bunch of presents.

“Oh wow!” he exclaimed, and reached down to start pulling them out of the trunk: there was a brand new set of markers and paper for him, an absolutely evil-looking doll for Shock, and a pair of boxing gloves for Lock… and below all of that was the bag they had lost, now full of candy. His cohorts ran over to see their new toys, and Oogie laughed.

“And here’s another pair of these!” he called, and tossed Lock a second set of boxing gloves that he’d had tucked behind his chair. “Now you and your little pals can practice on each other.”

“Thank you, Mr. Oogie Boogie!” the children said in unison. Lock was already stuffing his hand into one of the gloves and as soon as he finished he turned around and punched Barrel in the gut. Everybody laughed as Barrel wheezed and doubled over, but it didn’t really hurt as bad with the gloves for some reason, so as soon as he caught his breath he laughed right along with everyone else.

“There ya’ go!” Oogie chortled, leaning back in his chair. “Put on a pair of those gloves, little man, and punch him right back. And you come on over here, princess, let’s make a bet on who’s gonna win this round, and then you fight the winner. I’ve got five candy bars on Lock.”

“I wanna bet on Lock, too!” Shock said excitedly as she grabbed a bunch of candy bars out of the sack and hurried over to join him.

“Hey!” whined Barrel as he put on his gloves. He also knew it was likely that Lock would beat him, but he wasn’t as weak as everyone liked to think he was. Just because he couldn’t hit as hard didn’t mean he couldn’t take one heck of a beating. Oogie had even referred to him as his _‘star pupil’_ in the past because of his ability to withstand such harsh corporal punishment. He cried more than his cohorts, but it was almost never because of physical pain.

“You’re dead meat, midget.” Lock grinned evilly, and Barrel frowned at him as menacingly as he could, determined to at least put up a good fight.

Oogie chuckled. “Alright, Barrel, I’ll take a chance on ya’. You just might be able to outlast ol’ Lock there!” He turned to Shock and said, “I’ll take the long-shot. Gimme twenty candy bars on the underdog.”

Shock giggled and decided to risk joking with him since he seemed to be in such a good mood. “You’re gonna be paying up, Mr. Oogie Boogie. I want twenty of the really big, really good ones when Lock kicks Barrel’s butt!”

Oogie laughed loudly and slapped his thigh with one hand. “HA! We’ll see about that! You gonna let her talk about you like that? Do me proud, little man!” he hollered, and Barrel nodded and held up his fists, determined not to screw up this opportunity to impress the Boogie Man. Lock, however, was torn: the idea of letting Barrel beat him was unacceptable, but on the other hand it would be pretty hilarious to throw the match just to make Shock lose twenty candy bars. As he stood there trying to make up his mind, Barrel suddenly punched him right in the jaw and and Lock’s ego won out. If for some horrible reason he actually lost this fight, it wouldn’t be for lack of trying.


	21. Ribbons, Rockets and Recognition

The clock on the wall announced the late hour in broken, discordant chimes but Mayor didn’t even glance up at it - he was far too engrossed in the plans for this Halloween. There were only a few more weeks left and there was still so much to do, so many little details to finalize, _i’s_ to dot and _t’s_ to cross… but there was nothing he loved better, even when the deadline began to press on his already high-strung nerves. It was his entire purpose, after all, and with Jack planning alongside him they’d never had an unsuccessful Halloween yet no matter how much he panicked and fretted for months and months beforehand. He dipped his raven quill into the inkwell and continued writing each creature’s geographical assignment in an impeccably neat hand when there was a knock on his office door.

“Come in!” he called, hesitating to swivel his face to show irritation at being interrupted, because at this somewhat late hour it was most likely the Pumpkin King himself coming to talk about the plans. Indeed it was, and Jack strode into the office with that incredibly elegant manner of his and a smile on his skull. “Jack! How can I help you?” asked the Mayor with a wide grin on his own face.

“Good evening Mayor, how are the plans coming?” Jack took a seat in the tall chair beside the desk especially for him, as he couldn’t sit comfortably on the portly Mayor’s own chairs with his tall, spindly frame

“Well, I think we’re mostly on schedule…” the Mayor said a bit nervously, but not nervously enough to change his face into complete anxiety. “How are things progressing on your end?”

“Everything is going wonderfully, we’re going to have the most terrifying Halloween yet, I can feel it in my bones!” Jack said in a very chipper tone of voice, but then he got a tiny bit more serious. “However, I do need to speak with you about something. It’s regarding Lock, Shock and Barrel.”

Instantly the Mayor’s face swiveled to extreme dislike, suspicion and a fair amount of dismay. Anything regarding those little criminals couldn’t be good news. “What have they done now?!” he practically shrieked. If this year’s Halloween got thrown off course because of those little miscreants… but Jack held up a calming hand.

“Absolutely nothing at all. I think even you have to agree that their behavior has improved considerably now that Oogie Boogie has been dead and gone for some time.” Jack said, and the Mayor supposed that was a tiny bit true… but they were still aggravating little troublemakers and he would absolutely never care for the trio no matter how mild their pranks may eventually get - and they weren’t _that_ mild yet, in his opinion. Their jobs as trick-or-treaters made them unlikeable by default, as far as he was concerned.

Jack continued, “And additionally, I know that you are now aware that they were abused quite severely by Oogie Boogie for practically their entire lives before then, so their behavior is completely understandable. It’s rather a miracle they behaved as well as they did all those years… and perhaps even more of a miracle that they survived at all.” A familiar feeling of guilt bubbled up heavily where Jack’s guts would have been as he spoke, for he entirely blamed himself for not recognizing the children’s situation far earlier than he did. He felt an almost crippling shame that he, the supposed Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, had let three of his citizens slip beneath his radar - and the fact that they were tiny, ill-treated children made it that much worse.

The Mayor shifted a bit uncomfortably in his seat. When Jack put it like that he almost felt a bit sorry for the trick-or-treaters, for even he had to admit that no matter how rotten they would have been on their own, being abused by the Boogie Man surely made it a hundred times worse. “So…” he asked uncertainly, waiting to hear what Jack had on his mind.

“So, I think it’s long past time for us to make more strenuous efforts to include them in the festivities, particularly the post-Halloween celebration. They’ve never attended, and I believe much of the reason for that is because we’ve all made them feel quite unwelcome.”

“They _are_ unwelcome.” the Mayor grumbled. Whatever sympathy he might manage to dredge up for them wasn’t enough for him to want them anywhere near the post-Halloween celebration. The less he had to see those little tricksters the better, and he definitely wasn’t thrilled at the idea of them spoiling the festivities.

“Come now, Mayor.” Jack said a bit sternly, and the Mayor sighed.

“Alright, so what do you suggest?”

“I think we should give them an award. Children respond to praise - especially those three, no doubt because they’ve been starved for affection and affirmation for far too long. I believe that it would be a very gracious gesture and effective way to help them feel like they belong to this town and this holiday by recognizing their talents.” The Mayor couldn’t help but make a face at that, but Jack continued: “You have to admit they _are_ quite talented at their job no matter how annoying it can be, not to mention quite dedicated to it. And such dedication and talent deserves public recognition.”

“But Jack, we’ve already started production on this year’s ribbons and trophies! We can’t make another one so late in the game!”

But Jack was unswayed. “Nonsense, I’m sure we can squeeze another one in! Harlequin is an excellent craftsdemon, and I’m going to personally ensure that he has time in his schedule to make one for Lock, Shock and Barrel to share. And perhaps a few ribbons for them individually…” The Mayor continued to look disgruntled but Jack was smiling widely now, thinking about how happy he hoped receiving an award in front of the entire town would make the children.

“Well, whatever you think is best, Jack.” the Mayor finally conceded, for Jack was the boss and once he put his mind to something he was just about unstoppable.

“I’m glad you agree! I’ll speak to Harlequin first thing in the morning.” Jack said brightly, then rose from his chair and strode out the door with a final goodnight.

The Mayor sighed and rubbed his temples, then started a new list of things to prepare and acquire in case the trick-or-treaters caused any trouble at the celebration. “Let’s see,” he murmured to himself, “Fire extinguishers, cleaning supplies, paint remover, food-poisoning antidotes…” It was going to be a long night.

  
………

  
Harlequin wasn’t too pleased with the prospect of another trophy and three ribbons being added to his assignments so close to the big day - especially not for the annoying little tricksters - but he didn’t dare question Jack. Plus Jack reassigned some of his other duties to give him time, so he begrudgingly agreed. “What should the awards be for? Most irritating?” he asked grumpily, but Jack only chuckled.

“Now now, remember, trick-or-treating is a part of Halloween. So, I think that perhaps something like _‘most tricks played’_ , or perhaps _‘best tricks played’_ …” Harlequin didn’t offer any other suggestions, but eventually Jack settled on _‘best AND most tricks played’_ , with _‘Lock, Shock and Barrel: Halloween’s Finest Trick-or-Treaters’_ below. “And please make it the largest of this year’s trophies - there are three of them, after all. As for the ribbons, I think we should make one for each of them, all equally splendid, but let’s wait to see what they accomplish that Halloween night. I’ll have one of the ghosts tail them and see where they excel individually, then if you could just quickly amend the ribbons before the ceremony to make them say the appropriate things that would be fantastic!” Jack said happily, feeling quite proud of his ideas.

“Roger that, Jack.” said the demon, now extra unhappy about having to take a moment out of the celebrations to add final touches to the little prankster’s ribbons, but despite this annoyance he pulled out a large sheet of tarnished silver to begin shaping it into the largest trophy of them all.

Jack’s next stop was the treehouse itself. He had very rarely visited before Oogie died - assuming rather erroneously that the children were being taken care of - but now that the Boogie Man was gone he visited quite frequently to check up on them. “Hello!” he called at the back door. Technically he could cram himself into their cage elevator or else hang onto the outside of it like a spider, but he generally preferred using the door if possible. He was greeted with a hail of small pebbles and bits of bone from the crow’s nest on top of the treehouse and the naughty laughter of all three children. Jack was prepared for this, however, and with all of his considerable grace and agility was able to dodge most of them, and the ones that made contact didn’t really hurt. “Alright you rascals!” he shouted up with a laugh. “I’d like to speak with you, please!”

“Why?” called down Lock.

“We didn’t do anything!” Barrel hollered.

Jack chuckled again. “I doubt that’s true, but in any case that’s not what I wish to speak with you about. Please come on down and open the door. I’ve brought some sour gummy worms for you.” Bribery was usually the best way to get them to comply, especially bribery with food.

“Just a sec!” Shock yelled, and after a moment the back door fell open to form the ramp into the treehouse. All three children were waiting right next to the door for him and Jack quickly doled out the gummy worms as a gesture of goodwill. “So whaddaya want?” Shock asked as she chose a worm out of the baggie he’d handed her.

“Let’s have a seat.” Jack said, and they followed him into their living room and over to their ratty old sofa, which was so low that his knees practically reached his skull when he sat down. Lock and Shock sat on one side of him and Barrel on the other, all of their little legs dangling over the edge of the cushions. “As you know, Halloween is only a few weeks away. I’ve come to invite you to the post-Halloween celebration this year. You’ve never attended, and I’d very much like for you to come.”

“Why?” asked Barrel with at least three gummy worms sticking out of his mouth.

“Because you are a part of this town and I think you should be there.”

“Parties are boring.” said Lock, but that was a gigantic lie. He’d never even really been to a party before and deep down it did sound kind of exciting. He didn’t want to say that, though, because that would require admitting to himself that it was a little bit painful to have never attended in the past.

“And besides that, nobody likes us.” added Shock, and Jack’s heart twinged a bit. “Everyone will just glare at us and tell us to go away.” Usually everyone’s dirty looks and hostile behavior really didn’t bother any of them, but there were much better ways they could think of to spend their post-Halloween night.

“I like you.” said Jack. “Sally likes you, too. And more and more of the others are coming around to understanding how vital trick-or-treating is to Halloween, so I think if you give some of them a chance you might be surprised.”

“Yeah, right.” huffed Lock, letting go of his candy bag long enough to cross his arms.

“You don’t believe that Sally and I like you?”

“We know _you_ do…” said Shock, waving her hand dismissively. Lock eyed the gummy worm flopping about in her grip and he was tempted to try and swipe it, but not with Jack sitting right there. Shock continued, “But still… why would we wanna hang around a bunch of boring grown-ups?”

“There are children there, too. Ethan, Gustov and the rest of the kids all participate.”

“Even worse.” said Lock, and his cohorts snickered.

Jack was undeterred and he pressed onwards trying to convince them. “I think you’re dismissing this idea way too soon. Parties are a great deal of fun, especially this one. There is a parade, tons of free delicious food and an award ceremony. I think you’ll really enjoy it. And you’d be doing me a great personal favor if you attended.”

All three kids looked at him a bit suspiciously. While they had been slowly warming to the idea that perhaps Jack really did like them, it was still weird to be invited somewhere. And him considering their presence to be doing him a favor? That was just bizarre, but it was strangely flattering as well. “Alright, we’ll think about it.” decided Lock, and Shock and Barrel nodded in agreement.

“Wonderful!” Jack exclaimed, and he patted each of them on their knees. They actually preferred how Jack would pat their shoulders or knees instead of their heads, like Oogie used to do. There was something so condescending about being patted on the head… or perhaps it just felt bad because they associated it with Oogie - and when he wasn’t patting their heads, he was hitting them instead.

Jack got up from the sofa feeling quite satisfied with the conversation. He knew that if Lock said they’d consider doing something then that basically meant that they would do it - they just didn’t like to say it right away and seem _too_ cooperative. “Is everything going alright out here?” he asked, glancing around the living room - the place was a mess, but that was to be expected with a seven, six and five year-old taking care of themselves. At least it looked like they had a decent amount of firewood piled in the corner and he wished he could think up an excuse to check how their food supply was doing, but the children were very independent and he felt that asking to inspect their kitchen would be a bit much considering that he’d already asked them to attend the Halloween party. “Is there anything you need?”

“A rocket-launcher.” said Lock, and his cohorts giggled.

“Sorry, I can’t help you there.” Jack smiled. “Are you all ready for Halloween? Have you got your trick-or-treating plans all hammered out?”

“Of course we do.” said Shock, rolling her eyes. “We’re experts, we don’t even have to think about it. We’re gonna hit up the suburbs of San Francisco this year. Lots of rich people, usually good candy.”

“And we have plenty of firecrackers and toilet paper and eggs.” added Lock.

“And Helgamine put a spell on our candy bags so they can hold even more than they could before!” Barrel said excitedly.

“That was nice of her!” said Jack, and he was quite surprised to hear it. He knew that Helgamine had a _tiny_ bit of a soft-spot for the trio - or at least for Shock - but it was still an unusually kind thing for her to do. “Well it sounds like you’re all set. Just please take it easy with the firecrackers.”

“You bet, Jack.” snickered Lock.

“Sure thing, Jack.” added Shock.

“We will, Jack!” finished Barrel, and Jack chuckled once more and headed out the back door as all three children uncrossed their hidden fingers and promptly began fighting over the remaining gummy worms.

  
……..

  
The next two weeks passed in a flurry of activity, everybody putting the final touches on their plans for the big night. Early in the evening of Halloween, Jack took time out of his busy schedule to make sure that he saw Lock, Shock and Barrel off on their journey to the Human World. The three of them were among the earliest residents of Halloween Town to get started so they could be out and about on the streets while the littlest of human children were trick-or-treating. He’d enlisted the help of one of the ghosts to follow them from a distance and try to get an idea of what might be a good ribbon to award each of them. A little bit before the children were due at the crypt that would take them to San Francisco, Jack took the ghost aside and whispered: “Remember, stay out of sight and don’t interfere no matter how naughty you think they’re being. It’s their job and they’ve been doing it successfully for a very long time, so let them get on with it. Alright?”

“Yes, I understand. I doubt they would listen if I told them to behave anyway!”

Jack chuckled, “I’m sure you’re right about that! Thank you again very much for helping with this. I know that it’s not how you wanted to spend your Halloween, but I truly do appreciate it and you’re going to be a part of making Lock, Shock and Barrel’s evening very special.”

“It’s okay, Jack, I don’t really mind. In all honesty, I’m actually a little bit curious to see what they do out there.” Jack smiled appreciatively, and with that the ghost disappeared without another word - and just in time, too, for only a moment later the trio came through the cemetery gate, wearing their masks and holding their bags full of tricks and empty ones to fill with treats.

“What are you doing here?” asked Lock when they reached Jack, looking quite naughty with his wicked, grinning mask and the pointed curls of his hair peeking up between the horns.

“I’ve just come to see you off and wish you a successful night! And also to remind you that I very much hope to see you at the celebration in town square afterwards.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry about it. We’ll be there.” Shock said, trying to sound a bit exasperated, like Jack was an annoying fanboy who just wouldn’t leave them alone. But despite the menacing frown of her mask deep down she was a little bit happy that the Pumpkin King was so eager to have them. Barrel didn’t say anything, he just nodded and looked up at Jack with his wide, skeletal smile and Jack couldn’t help but think how cute the little ghoul looked - and he had no doubt that Barrel was smiling just as widely beneath his mask.

“Wonderful! See you then, now go scare some humans, play some tricks and get plenty of treats!” Jack said cheerfully as he opened up the crypt for them, and all three children gave him a thumbs up before hopping inside and heading off to the world of humans - and Jack just barely sensed the ghost fly swiftly past him as well. He smiled to himself as he closed the crypt door, then quick as a flash headed towards Dr. Finkelstein’s laboratory - there was just one more thing he needed to do before going to the Human World himself.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to be encouraging them, Jack?” grumbled Dr. Finkelstein as he wheeled over to his worktable to retrieve the super-secret project that Jack had assigned him two weeks ago. “I’m letting you know now that if they use this thing on me I’ll be holding you personally responsible.”

Jack laughed and slapped the back of the wheelchair as though it were the doctor’s own back. “Don’t worry, I’m confident they won’t misuse it too badly.” The doctor raised one unconvinced eyebrow at him, so he added, “Well… _reasonably_ confident, at least.” Dr. Finkelstein looked even more unimpressed, so Jack finally admitted, “Alright, I’m not very confident at all, but still, they deserve to have a little fun. And besides that, you made it so it’s no more destructive than their regular fireworks, right?”

Dr. Finkelstein sighed. “Yes, I did. It looks much more impressive than it actually is, so hopefully they’ll be happy without making the rest of us too miserable.” He pulled a dingy cloth off of the worktable to reveal a custom rocket-launcher, and Jack nearly clapped in delight. It was truly aggressive-looking and so large that Jack suspected that it would take all three of the children to hold it. The doctor continued in a very cranky voice, “Currently it’s loaded with some rather spectacular fireworks that they can launch at the celebration tonight - just make sure they aim it into the sky!” Then he pointed to a metal crate containing lots of grenade-looking objects. “These are stink-bombs that will release pink smoke and the scent of plumerias upon impact. Annoying, but not dangerous. Hopefully that will keep them satisfied for awhile.”

“Thank you, Doctor!” said Jack as he carefully picked up the rocket-launcher and crate of stink-bombs. “You’re making three children very happy. You can’t honestly tell me that you wouldn’t have loved a toy like this when you were young!” he winked.

The doctor huffed grumpily as he began wheeling towards the door. “Nonsense, I was never young.” But Jack only chuckled a bit because he’d been around long enough to know that wasn’t true.

  
……..

  
“What do you think the party’s gonna be like?” asked Barrel with a mouth full of caramel, and he was a bit difficult to understand with the way the candy was making his teeth stick together. Halloween was over and done and they were headed back home, chattering about their successful night and starting work on their candy haul already. All of their eggs, toilet paper and fireworks were gone and in their place was tons of candy, and their costumes were rather dirty from hiding in bushes and behind sheds and cars all night. Overall they were feeling quite satisfied with the job that they had done.

“Probably boring and dumb.” sneered Lock as he picked a box of raisins out of his bag and threw it on the ground. The human who handed _that_ out had ended up with their car absolutely covered in eggs. Since when had San Francisco become so full of health-nuts?

“But Jack said there’s lots of free food and a parade.” protested Barrel. He was always up for free food, and a parade actually sounded pretty fun to him.

“Yeah, and there’s also an awards ceremony, too, remember? It’s just gonna be a bunch of idiots congratulating themselves on how scary they think they are.” Shock said disdainfully, though she was actually extremely curious to see what it was all about. Barrel just shrugged as they all three pushed open the heavy crypt doors, and he hoped that his pessimistic cohorts were wrong this time. They walked out of the cemetery and tonight they headed for the town square instead of back home to their treehouse to play games and pig out on candy until they passed out on the floor like usual, and they didn’t sense the ghost that had been secretly following them fly quickly over their heads and leave them behind. As they got nearer to town they saw more and more of their fellow creatures returning as well, and they also noticed they seemed to be getting fewer dirty looks than usual, which they assumed was because everyone was still in a celebratory sort of mood from the biggest day of the year. They found the town square looking quite spooky and festive with all of the lanterns and torches lit and many of the townspeople milling about, chattering and laughing. The trio saw the Corpse family nearby and couldn’t help but snicker because Ethan was on his leash - it was always so hilarious to see him wearing it, and they were all glad that they didn’t have anyone trying to put leashes on them.

“Hey Ethan, where’s the parade?” said Lock, and all three corpses turned around. Surprisingly they didn’t look quite as distrustful as they usually did, though Ethan did still look a bit nervous. Unbeknownst to the trick-or-treaters, Jack had implored everyone in town to at least make an _attempt_ at being a bit more welcoming, and everyone loved Jack enough to try.

“It comes through the main gates and goes around the fountain.” Ethan answered, then his father added:

“I believe you’ll get the best view if you sit up on the fountain wall. Should be starting any minute now.”

Without a word the trio turned around and headed for the fountain, because even if the parade was stupid and pathetic they wanted to have the best view of it. When they had clambered up onto the fountain basin wall Barrel asked, “I wonder where the food is?” and all three of them jumped when they heard a low, somewhat melodious voice from right behind them.

“It’s all set up in the town hall. Eating comes after the parade and awards.” It was Ludmilla the lagoon creature, and she slithered through the water to lean over the fountain wall beside them.

“Oh.” said Barrel, and he was a bit disappointed that he’d have to sit through a whole parade and award ceremony before he got to check out the free food. But before he could consider just going to town hall now anyway, suddenly music started up and everyone began to cheer. The kids stood up on the fountain wall to see over the crowd and despite themselves they started to feel a little excited as the main gates opened and the parade began. There was a procession of some of the townspeople carrying torches, banners and wickedly-carved jack-o-lanterns, singing a song that the trick-or-treaters didn’t know and looking quite scary. Behemoth came last, pulling an enormous straw horse with a very menacing pumpkin-headed scarecrow sitting astride it. As scary as that scarecrow looked, the trick-or-treaters couldn’t help but think it was a rather lame ending to the parade… but suddenly it leapt up to stand on the back of the horse, grabbed a torch right out of a wrought iron holder and swallowed the fire. Lock, Shock and Barrel’s eyes widened as the scarecrow burst into flames, dancing and twisting atop the horse with frightening, spider-like motions as it burned and the crowd went absolutely wild. It was a display unlike anything the trio had ever seen, and they all three gasped with shock, terror and delight as the fiery scarecrow leapt high into the air off of the straw horse and did an impossibly graceful somersault and dive into the fountain right next to them, so close that it splashed them with a little bit of water. But the kids didn’t mind, they were too amazed by what they had just witnessed. They hurriedly looked down into the deep fountain, waiting to see what would happen next… and then Jack himself emerged smoothly from the water, now wearing his normal tuxedo and the children wondered how on earth he had accomplished it. They stared up at him as he rose, and for the first time they truly appreciated just how awesomely and effortlessly frightening he was even when he wasn’t yelling at them. They had always known that Jack was the Pumpkin King for good reason, but now they _really_ understood and before they could stop themselves they were cheering and clapping along with everyone else.

“Thank you, everybody!” Jack shouted to the crowd as his bony face transformed from scary into delighted. “What a wonderfully terrifying Halloween! Excellent work, everyone!” The crowd whooped and cheered, and as Jack stepped out of the fountain he quickly looked down at the trick-or-treaters and gave them a smile and a wink. “So glad to see you’ve joined us!” he said happily, and beneath their masks they couldn’t help but grin. Maybe this party thing wasn’t too bad after all.

There were several minutes of the townspeople fawning over Jack and then he and the Mayor both made speeches, but they were mercifully short and ended before the children got too bored. “And now it’s time to announce the awards!” cried the Mayor, and Harlequin pushed over a cart full of trophies and ribbons. There were awards for such things as _‘most blood drained’_ , _‘most terrifying howl’_ , and even one for the creature who made the most humans pee their pants. The trio giggled at that one, wishing that they were scary enough to make more than just a couple of toddlers pee themselves.

Finally they seemed to be down to the last trophy. Jack cleared his throat and announced, “And now for our final awards of the evening. Halloween is a rich and diverse holiday of creatures and traditions all working together to give the humans a fright. Our work adds a critical dimension to their well-rounded existence, enhancing and deepening the human experience. The stories they tell and the rituals they practice are our lifeblood, so to speak, and each of us has a very important role to play. For far too long we have neglected to recognize one particular ritual here in this town, and although it is one of our relatively newer traditions, it is by no means less important. So please join me in honoring Halloween’s own Trick-or-Treaters: Lock, Shock and Barrel!”

Jack gestured to the trio and they sat there stunned for a moment, not quite sure of what they had just heard - partially because they had started to tune-out yet another boring speech. The crowd began to applaud as Jack gestured to them again and they looked at one another, wondering if they themselves were being pranked somehow. But Jack had never played a trick on them before, so they got hesitantly to their feet and hopped off of the fountain wall to go stand beside him on the town hall steps in front of everybody. They watched in bewilderment as the Mayor picked up a huge, very fancy-looking tarnished silver trophy out of the cart and handed it to Jack before then retrieving three large, tattered, black and orange ribbons. He walked towards them and they were surprised to see that for once in their existence, the happy side of his face was active as he looked at them. The Mayor held up one of the ribbons and said, “The first place award for _‘most trick-or-treaters frightened’_ goes to Lock!” The children were so flabbergasted that they didn’t even move or say a word as he pinned the ribbon to the front of Lock’s shirt, and it was so large that the end of the ribbon tails nearly reached the little devil’s knees. Everyone applauded even louder, and as Lock looked out at the crowd clapping for him his confusion began melting away into an almost overwhelming pride. But before his cohorts could even begin to feel jealous, the Mayor stepped over to Shock and said, “The first place award for _‘most property damage caused’_ goes to Shock!” She got just as much applause as Lock had, and as the Mayor pinned her ribbon to the front of her dress she had never felt so proud of herself in all her life. Finally the Mayor got to Barrel and held up the last ribbon, and by now the little ghoul was barely able to contain his excitement because he was sure that ribbon just _had_ to be for him. “And the first place award for _‘most candy acquired’_ goes to Barrel!”

“What? You got the most candy?” Lock hissed, but Barrel only shrugged and grinned at his cohorts as the Mayor pinned on his ribbon and everyone applauded. It wasn’t his fault he was the littlest and cutest among them.

“Excellent work, Lock, Shock and Barrel!” cried Jack as the Mayor stepped away, then he held up the silver trophy up and said, “And to all three of you I present this award for _‘best and most tricks played’_. Halloween wouldn’t be the same without you, and I thank you on behalf of us all for your hard work and dedication to our holiday over the years!” Everyone cheered as Jack handed the trophy to Shock since she was standing between her two cohorts, and they all three gawked at it with wonder and excitement. They had never owned anything this fancy, but sure enough it had their names engraved onto it in very ornate writing so it couldn’t be a mistake. Jack continued, “And I personally have one final gift for you three. Lock, Barrel, will you please come over here beside me?” The boys hurried over closer to him as Shock held the trophy, and Jack bent to pull something out of the cart… and all three of their little jaws dropped when they saw what it was: it was a rocket-launcher. Not even Oogie Boogie had ever gotten them anything quite this cool and they could hardly believe that boring old Jack was giving it to them. It took both boys to hold it up as Jack handed it to them and said with a grin, “Now, why don’t you test it out for us? Launch it into the sky and let’s see what happens!” He didn’t have to tell them twice and together Lock and Barrel aimed the weapon upwards and excitedly pulled the trigger, and all three children were transported into raptures as it shot out a bomb with a deafening ‘BOOM’. It was so powerful that it nearly knocked Lock and Barrel right off of their feet, and the bomb soared high into the air and then exploded into a spectacular burst of fireworks and everyone cheered even louder. “A perfect way to get the party started! Time for food, everyone!” cried Jack once the fireworks had faded away, and as everyone headed into the town hall he leaned down to the trio and smiled, “Don’t make me regret giving you this _too_ much!”

“We won’t, Jack!” all three of them grinned, and they were way too happy to even remember to cross their fingers.

……..

  
The party went until almost the next morning, and by the end of it the trio were completely exhausted, giddy, and so stuffed with food and candy that walking home was a struggle. They had showed off their ribbons and trophy and bragged about their night to anyone who would listen, and it was strange to be able to just take as much food and drink as they wanted without anybody yelling at them. They even stuffed some of that food into their rocket-launcher and blasted it against the side of town hall just to see what would happen, and before long the other children - and even a few adults - were watching and laughing… though they all stayed a safe distance away lest the former-Boogie-Boys take aim at them instead of the wall. But the trio didn’t even feel the need to shoot food or even one of Dr. Finkelstein’s stink-bombs at anyone right at that moment because they were getting plenty of attention already. When the party finally began to wind down and the townspeople dispersed back to their homes, Lock and Shock heaved their heavy new toy onto their shoulders and worked together to carry it back home while Barrel followed along behind them carrying the crate full of stink-bombs and their trophy. But before they got very far they were stopped by Jack and Sally, who were holding hands and looking blissfully happy and the children snickered. Grown-ups and their lovey-dovey stuff was so gross.

“Did you have a nice time?” Sally asked in a very sweet voice as Jack beamed down at them.

“Yeah, it was wicked!” Lock said excitedly, for that night had completely changed his mind about parties and he couldn’t wait until the next one.

“Yeah, super wicked!” added Shock, for she felt the same.

“Super-duper wicked!” finished Barrel, barely able to peek around their gigantic trophy to see Jack and Sally.

“I’m so glad!” said Jack, and he knew better than to say _‘I told you so’_ to the trick-or-treaters. “I hope we’ll see you again at the next celebration.” he said, and the children nodded vigorously before continuing back towards their treehouse.

When they finally arrived home Lock and Shock gently placed the rocket-launcher on the kitchen table like it was the most precious thing they owned while Barrel looked around for a good place to display their trophy. They finally settled on putting it on top of their busted-up old television set, both so they could look at it all the time and also because they didn’t really have any shelves that were good enough to show off such a prize. Then they carefully took off their ribbons and pinned them to the wall above the television so they could look at those as well instead of squishing them in their sleep. They were all so wiped out that they didn’t even make it to their bedrooms, they just took off their masks and piled up together on the sofa to gaze at their trophies, fully prepared to slip into unconsciousness right where they were sitting. After all, that was pretty much what they did every Halloween night after running themselves ragged in the streets of the Human World and eating so much candy that they gave themselves heart palpitations before finally passing out - only this time they were even _more_ exhausted from the party and from the unfamiliar but incredibly exciting experience of being praised by everyone and interacting with the other townspeople with minimal nasty looks or mean words.

“I ate too much.” Barrel groaned, but he was smiling. Being stuffed felt better than being hungry, and his only regret was that he couldn’t eat even more.

Shock rolled her eyes at him, but she was smiling as well. “Of course you did.” she said, and Lock laughed a little bit, but not too hard because he’d over-eaten as well and laughing was slightly uncomfortable.

“I can’t wait to try out those stink-bombs.” he yawned as he rolled into his usual sleeping position on his stomach, and Shock swatted his tail away from her face.

“Watch where you’re waving that thing, moron.” she grumbled, but she was still smiling because nothing could ruin her good mood after the night they’d just had. He grinned and tried to smack her gently with it a few more times, and Barrel giggled tiredly when she finally grabbed it and stuffed it down the crack between the sofa cushions. Lock snort-laughed and closed his eyes before pulling his tail back out of the cushions and wrapping it around his own leg, surrendering himself to sleep as his cohorts shifted around to get more comfortable as well. Barrel began snoring in what seemed like mere seconds, and Shock took off her hat and dropped it on the floor before grabbing the tattered old throw blanket off of the back of the sofa and draping it over herself and her friends. She sighed contentedly and snuggled down deeper into the cushions, and their beautiful trophy was the last thing she saw as her eyelids began to droop closed and she slipped into a deep, peaceful sleep, unable to recall when they’d had a happier Halloween.


	22. Lock, Shock and Barrel's First Christmas

Shock yawned and stretched luxuriously in her bed as the bright sunlight streamed through her bedroom window on the morning of the fifty-fifth day after Halloween. It felt unusually chilly in the room and she wasn’t looking forward to getting out of bed to get a fire going in the fireplace to warm up the treehouse. Usually Lock was the one who started the fire and tended to it the most - including collecting and chopping the firewood - but clearly he wasn’t awake yet and she wasn’t sure she wanted to wait in a cold house until he was. She made an irritated sort of noise under her breath as she rolled out of bed, wrapping herself tightly in one of her tattered blankets and shuffling out towards the living room. She considered waking up Lock and forcing him to do it, but she didn’t want to waste time on a fight - she’d just go back and kick him in the butt after she’d gotten the fire going. But as she got closer to the living room it began to warm up considerably - perhaps he’d started the fire after all? But when she got to the living room she stopped in her tracks and her eyes went wide before she spun around, dropped her blanket and sprinted to Lock’s bedroom.  
  
“Wake up, moron!” she shouted as she threw open his door. He woke up instantly but before he could ask what her problem was she said: “You’ll never guess what’s in the living room! We gotta get Barrel, come see!”  
  
“What is it?”  
  
“I’m not telling, you just have to come look for yourself!”  
  
Lock eyed her suspiciously even as he crawled off of his ratty old mattress, because while she looked and sounded genuinely excited this absolutely seemed like a set-up for some sort of prank. He was probably going to go through the living room door and hit a trip-wire or step in a bear trap, or get a bucket of slime dumped on his head or find his knife collection in the fireplace or something along those lines. As if she’d read his mind, Shock insisted: “I’m serious! This isn’t a joke!”  
  
Lock looked at her even more suspiciously and while he wanted to go see what it was instead of waking up Barrel, he didn’t want to go into the living room on his own in case it was a joke. It was better to make Barrel go in first so he followed Shock to their littlest cohort’s bedroom.  
  
“Wake up, midget!” Shock yelled after they’d flung open his bedroom door, and Lock decided to jump right on top of Barrel to help wake him up. Shock’s excitement was contagious so he was starting to get pretty worked-up himself, and nothing helped burn off extra energy like a wrestling match.  
  
“What?” Barrel asked groggily as he tried to fight his middle cohort off of him.  
  
“You gotta see what’s in the living room! Quit wasting time!” she practically squealed, then kicked Lock in the backside before running back out the door. “Stop messing around and get out here!” she called from the hallway.  
  
“What’s so important anyway, you crazy witch?” Lock yelled, rubbing his rear end and hurrying after her while Barrel scrambled to his feet and followed him. He was about to shove Shock right in the back and through the door once he’d caught up to her, but instead he stopped and stared into the living room in absolute astonishment. She hadn’t been joking.  
  
“Whoa…” Barrel gasped in a tone of complete and utter awe as he came up to stand beside his cohorts, and they all stood there speechless as they took in the sight before them: a fire was already crackling merrily in their rough little cracked stone fireplace, filling the room with warmth and - oddly - a faint smell of cinnamon. But even more incredible than that was the big pile of brightly-wrapped and ribboned presents on the floor right beside the hearth and three stockings hanging from the nails in the lopsided mantel that they usually used to hang shrunken heads, dead bats, bundles of herbs and other such things from. “Sandy Claws came?” Barrel whispered.  
  
“To see us?” Lock whispered just as quietly.  
  
“And he brought us presents?” finished Shock. The children knew it was Christmas because while Jack had apparently learned his lesson about trying to take over another holiday, that didn’t stop him from having the whole town decorated and even prancing around in his Sandy Claws costume for the last week in celebration. But the trick-or-treaters really hadn’t been expecting a visit from Sandy, especially considering the part they had played in his kidnapping last year. They gawked in amazement at the garish display for a moment, then all three looked at one another for only another second before they ran forward to check it all out - but there were so many gifts that they didn’t know where to start. Lock eventually decided to look in the stocking first since it didn’t require unwrapping to see what was inside. He saw one with his name stitched into it and yanked it off of the nail in the splintered wooden mantle and sat down on the floor to inspect the contents, feeling more excited then he could ever remember feeling. His cohorts followed suite and took their own stockings down and sat on the floor as well. Lock’s stocking had a reindeer sewn into it and Barrel’s had a Christmas tree which weren’t too bad… but Shock’s was decorated with a little girl angel and the boys both snickered as she held it up and wrinkled her nose in disgust. But then they all decided they didn’t really care about it because the stockings were filled to the brim with candy and little toys, as well as several round, orange-colored things.  
  
“What is this?” Lock asked, holding one up.  
  
“I think it’s for eating.” ventured Barrel, holding one up to his nose and sniffing it.  
  
“You think everything is for eating.” Shock said, but she sniffed it as well and thought he was actually probably correct.  
  
Barrel shrugged and took an enormous bite out of the orange and his friends watched and waited to see if he would fall over dead or not. The thick, dimpled outside peel was rather unpleasantly bitter, but inside was a sweet, tart, juicy flesh and as the juice dribbled down his chin Barrel grinned at his cohorts. “It’s good!” he mumbled happily through his full mouth. “But I think we have to pull the skin off first.”  
  
Lock and Shock grinned at one another. They’d never seen a food that you had to pull the skin off of that wasn’t pumpkin or an animal, and they both dug their fingernails into their oranges and ripped the peels off with destructive glee.  
  
“They _are_ good!” Shock agreed as she took a bite, and Lock nodded as he devoured his own orange. They were stuck together in little segments and pulling them apart and eating them one at a time was surprisingly fun. They each finished an orange and then ate several candy canes - they knew what those were because of the Christmas books they had read, but the delicious peppermint flavor was unlike anything they had ever tasted before and they were instantly addicted. Also inside of the stockings were little satchels full of chocolates and salted nuts, as well as small toys: stickers, bouncy-balls, tiny metal matchbox cars, glittery gel pens and little hand-shaped things made out of some sort of stretchy, sticky substance that would stick to things when you threw them. Shock received a little silver charm bracelet, Lock a pack of playing cards and Barrel a set of marbles, and they all three had a few more practical - and therefore boring - gifts such as a toothbrush, chapstick and a rolled-up pair of warm, woolly socks. The last thing they opened were three little envelopes, and they were amazed to find them stuffed with money.  
  
“How much money is this?” Barrel asked excitedly, but Lock and Shock had no idea. They’d never had any money, they only ever stole things so they didn’t know how much the crisp paper bills and shiny silver coins would buy. They thought it might be fun to try out buying something just to see what it was like to spend money instead of stealing, but on the other hand the money was so neat-looking that they kind of wanted to save it, too. But that decision could wait for another day because right now there was more pressing business: the large pile of presents on the floor beside them.  
  
They tossed their emptied stockings carelessly aside and each grabbed a wrapped box and began tearing off the colorful paper and ribbons. Most of the presents were kind of stupid, but others looked reasonably fun… and even the stupid ones could be improved by breaking or burning them, they decided. Shock instantly twisted the head off of an ugly blonde doll wearing a flowery pink dress and started drawing skull, bat and bone tattoos all over it with one of the glitter pens. She thought that maybe the doll wouldn’t be too bad if she could sew it a new dress out of black fabric, chopped all the hair off and made it carry it’s own head around.  
  
“Hey Barrel, catch!” Lock yelled as he threw a football at his littlest cohort, and it hit Barrel in the head before he even saw it coming.  
  
“No fair!” Barrel yelled back, but he was smiling. Lock grinned and jumped up from the floor to stand on the sofa cushions, then held out his hands.  
  
“Throw it back, dummy!” he said eagerly, and Barrel picked up the football and threw it as hard and far as he could in Lock’s general direction… but his aim wasn’t all that great and Lock had to leap off of the cushions and into the air with his arms outstretched and he actually tipped right over the back of the sofa and onto the floor. Shock and Barrel started laughing as he landed with a ‘thud’, but then he popped back up from behind the sofa, holding the football and grinning triumphantly. “I caught it!” he boasted, then threw the ball at Shock without warning, hitting her in the shoulder.  
  
“Hey!” she shouted, and Lock ducked behind the sofa with a wicked cackle as she threw the football back at him as hard as she could. She missed, but that was okay because it bounced so hard off of the side of the sofa that it actually went crashing through the nearby window, shattering the glass. They all laughed raucously at the destruction and kept on opening presents but then something caught Shock’s eye: snowflakes were drifting through the busted-open window. Apparently Sandy Claws had brought snow in addition to presents, just like he’d done last year. No wonder it had felt so cold that morning. “Look!” she said, pointing to the broken window, and the boys turned to see where she was pointing.  
  
“Snow!” they exclaimed together, and all thee children scurried to the window to look outside. Everything was covered in a thick blanket of glittery white snow as far as the eye could see and there were sharp, sparkling icicles hanging from the eaves of their treehouse and from the branches of the dead, barren trees on the nearby hill. It looked amazing and strange and even Shock was excited to go out and play in it, despite how cold it was.  
  
“Maybe that’s what this is for!” chirped Barrel, picking up a weird, puffy, one-pieced garment with fluffy fur trim around the hood that he had unwrapped earlier.  
  
“It must be!” agreed Shock, rummaging through the pile of presents and wrapping paper until she found a second and then a third puffy snowsuit. Hers was purple and pink with white fur around the hood, Lock’s was red and black with black fur, and Barrel’s was white and green with brown fur. They were truly ridiculous-looking, but if they helped them stay warm and dry while they played in the snow than it would be worth looking a little bit stupid.

Once they had opened up all of the presents they each picked a toy that they liked and sat down to play. “I wonder why Sandy Claws brought us stuff?” Barrel wondered out loud after awhile. He was laying on his stomach on the floor in front of the T.V., sucking on what must have been at least his tenth candy cane and working on a puzzle that Sandy had given them. The puzzle was of cute, fluffy kittens - which was totally stupid, but actually putting the pieces together was kind of fun and it gave him the idea to maybe try making his own puzzle someday. Maybe of a monster or lots of gross, bloody dead bodies… the possibilities were endless.  
  
“Why wouldn’t he? That’s what he does, he brings kids stuff.” Lock said casually. He was building a little city out of blocks on the floor so that he could stomp through it and destroy it like Godzilla.  
  
Shock rolled her eyes at him from where she was sitting near the fireplace. “Gee, I dunno, maybe because we kidnapped him and stuffed him in a bag and almost let Oogie Boogie eat him?” she said sarcastically as she tossed the ugly pink doll dress into the fireplace.  
  
“But he’s never come here before. And we didn’t even leave him any cookies and milk.” added Barrel.  
  
“And he’s supposed to just leave coal for naughty kids, remember? If kidnapping him and almost getting him eaten doesn’t get us on the naughty list, then what the heck will?” pondered Shock, and this time it was Lock’s turn to roll his eyes.  
  
“Who cares? Why are you two questioning it? Obviously he never came before because he didn’t know about us, just like how we didn’t know about Christmas until last year. And kidnapping him doesn’t count as naughty, that wasn’t our idea, we were just following orders!” Shock and Barrel had to agree that he had a good point, but they were still pretty sure it counted as naughty because they had very much enjoyed carrying out that particular order.  
  
“I’m hungry.” said Barrel, changing the subject. He felt satisfied by Lock’s answer, but his tummy was very much not satisfied by only oranges and candy canes. He felt that a real breakfast was long overdue, but they had been way too excited by all the presents to eat breakfast right away that morning.  
  
“Me too.” Lock and Shock replied in unison, and when they got to the kitchen they saw that Sandy Claws had left them a few more surprises: on the table was what appeared to be some sort of cake wrapped in red cellophane, a bowl of nuts still in the shells with three simple metal handheld nutcrackers, three big white ceramic mugs filled with marshmallows and a jar that read ‘hot chocolate’ on the side.  
  
“Wow, more food!” Barrel squealed as he ran over to unwrap the fruitcake and Lock and Shock hurried over as well. After they’d eaten about as much fruitcake as they could stand, Shock fixed up the hot chocolate and marshmallows and they all three cracked open some nuts and threw the empty shells at each other while they snacked.  
  
“I like Christmas.” Barrel decided.  
  
“Yeah, it’s not too stupid after all.” agreed Lock, chucking a nut shell at Shock’s mug and snickering when it plunked into her hot chocolate. She glared at him and threw a rather large whole Brazil nut at his face before poking her spoon into her mug to try and fish out the nut shell.  
  
“Yeah, maybe if we leave him cookies and milk next year he’ll bring us better stuff, like some poison I can put in your food that will make you crap your pants nonstop.” she said, giving Lock a threatening look but he only grinned naughtily.  
  
Barrel giggled at the idea of Lock crapping his pants, then said excitedly: “Or some new bear traps!”  
  
“Or some land mines!” Lock said even more excitedly, and while Shock thought it was highly unlikely that Sandy Claws would bring them bear traps or land mines based on what they knew about him, she didn’t want to ruin the mood. Soon all three of them were chattering about all the cool things that Sandy Claws just might _maybe_ bring them someday and they returned to the living room with their tummies full of fruitcake, hot chocolate, candy, oranges and nuts to put on their new snowsuits to go outside and play in the snow. Nothing could top Halloween, but they all decided that Christmas was definitely the second-best day of the whole year.


	23. The Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place immediately after the movie ends and is intended to be read after my other story, 'Kidnapping the Sandy Claws'.

 

Jack and Sally walked hand in hand together down from Spiral Hill where they had spent the last hour or so in a state of peaceful bliss.  For Jack’s part, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so happy and content.  Suddenly the lure of Christmas seemed trivial in comparison to having his dearest, loveliest, most faithful friend at his side.  Sure, Christmas was still a delightfully different experience, but while he had stretched and strained his brain to the breaking point trying to understand it, trying to mold and shape it to his will, being with Sally now simply made sense with no effort on his part whatsoever.  It felt natural and right and somehow he felt both calm and elated all at once.  They returned to the town square to find everyone still celebrating, experimenting with the snow and discussing the events of the evening and everything that had led up to it.  Jack made the rounds once more, checking in with the townsfolk and speaking with whoever approached him while Sally stood by his side until finally they were able to break away and find a quiet little place near the pond to sit together.

Lock, Shock and Barrel were some distance away from them, bickering and giggling and trying not to slip on the ice.  It seemed that they were trying to break a hole in the ice by stabbing it rather violently with what appeared to be Lucius’s pitchfork - apparently they had managed to steal it while the devil was busy making a snowmonster with Harlequin.  It was a truly amusing sight, for when they weren’t being _too_ destructive their childish antics were quite adorable, but there was something weighing on Jack’s mind that he had put off for long enough that night.

“Sally, would you be so kind as to excuse me for a moment?  I need to have a few words with Lock, Shock and Barrel.  I’m sure you can imagine why.”

“Of course, Jack.” Sally said, for considering all that had recently happened she felt that the poor children deserved even more than just _‘a few words’_.

“Thank you.” Jack smiled down at her, giving her hand a little squeeze with his own long, bony fingers.  “Would you like to join me for dinner later this evening?  We have a lot more to talk about, too.”  She nodded a bit shyly and her cheeks flushed a little as she tilted her face up to meet his in a quick kiss.  “Excellent.  I’ll come to walk you over later.” Jack said, and Sally watched with her heart aflutter as he strode gracefully towards the trick-or-treaters.  She could hardly believe that within the space of only a few hours she had gone from nearly being dinner for the Boogie Man to looking forward to dinner alone with Jack Skellington.  What a day this Christmas had turned out to be, but for none of the reasons she had been expecting!

 

“Hey Barrel, do you think Shock can swim as good under the ice as she does without it?” Lock grinned evilly as he chipped away at the ice, but Shock wasn’t scared of him.  The ice looked so thick that by the time the little devil finally broke through to the water below she would be long gone, back at the treehouse and thinking up a devious plot of her own to get back at him for even _suggesting_ he might try to push her under the ice.

“So you admit that I’m a better swimmer than you?  It’s about time.” she said snottily, but Lock didn’t take the bait.

“Yeah, but who cares?  It’s the _only_ thing you’re better at than me, so it’s no big deal.  Swimming is stupid anyway.” he said carelessly, and Shock dug the heels of her boots more firmly into the ice and shoved him without warning.  Lock swore loudly as his curly-toed shoes slipped right out from beneath him and he dropped the pitchfork, pinwheeling his arms wildly and desperately trying to stay upright… but it was a lost cause and he landed hard on his rear end on the ice.  Shock and Barrel laughed loudly, but Shock hadn’t really thought through this act of violence completely because she couldn’t run on the ice quickly enough to avoid his hand as he reached out and snatched her around the ankle.  She shrieked and swore herself as he tugged hard and she lost her footing as well, joining him rear-end-down on the ice.  Barrel laughed even harder as he tried to carefully edge further away from them without slipping himself, but by now Lock had given up on any notion of dignity and scrambled across the ice on his backside to kick Barrel in the knee, causing the little ghoul to fall as well.  Lock then pulled back his fist in preparation to punch Shock in the face for pushing him and she raised her hands to block his punch, when suddenly they heard Jack’s voice from just behind them and they all three froze.

“Hello, you three!  May I please speak with you for a moment?”  He was standing in the snow on the edge of the pond, and even though he looked quite cheerful the trick-or-treaters still felt a wave of uncertainty.  Surely he wasn’t angry with them again for giving Sandy Claws to Oogie, was he?  They thought he said he wasn’t going to punish them, but they were so used to Oogie Boogie saying one thing and doing another that they weren’t convinced that there wasn’t still time for Jack to beat them black and green.

“Why?” asked Lock, trying to hide his anxiety with a tone of defiance, but Jack wasn’t fooled.

“Just come over here, please.  You’re not in trouble, I promise.”

The children glanced at each other, then slowly stood and slipped and slid their way over across the ice towards him.  When they were safely on the snow Jack led them to the low stone wall and sat down, then gestured beside him for them to sit as well.  Once they were all seated beside him he turned sideways to face them and said in a very kind voice, “I’m sorry that I yelled at you earlier.  I should have known that you were only following orders from Oogie Boogie.  He’s been bad news for awhile now and I should have expected that was something he would do.”

Barrel was pleased to get an apology from the Pumpkin King, but Shock and Lock were less impressed.  “Yeah, well, if you thought he was such bad news then why didn’t you kill him earlier?” Lock grumbled.  He felt more free to express himself now that Jack had apologized and it seemed that the window of danger for being beaten had closed.

“Yeah, we’re not called Boogie’s Boys for nothing.  We have to do what he says.” added Shock, feeling just as disgruntled as Lock.

“ _Had_ to do.” corrected Jack.  “But you don’t have to obey him anymore.  And you’re right, I should have stopped him a long time ago.  I just didn’t realize how bad he had actually become.  And making the decision to execute someone is not as easy as it may seem.”

“What does _‘execute’_ mean?” Barrel asked.

“It means to kill them, dummy.” said Shock, and Jack was a bit ashamed that secretly he was glad she’d said it, because saying those words himself made him a little uncomfortable.  Shock thought that it was pretty wimpy of Jack to say that killing Oogie Boogie hadn’t been easy.  There were plenty of occasions that she wanted to do it herself, particularly after he’d beaten Lock into unconsciousness that one time.

“But that is no excuse for my not realizing how badly his behavior had escalated over the years.” Jack continued, then braced himself for what would no doubt be the hardest part of this conversation.  “And there is also no excuse for my not realizing that he was treating you three so poorly.  I hope that you can find it in your hearts to forgive me.”

That was really going above and beyond a standard apology, and it was a little confusing for the trio.  Never before had an adult asked for their forgiveness and the power of those words was somewhat overwhelming.

“Uh.  Okay.” Lock said a bit uncertainly, but his cohorts kept silent.

The guilt bubbling up from deep in Jack’s gut intensified as he finally asked the biggest question of all: “Lock, you said earlier that Oogie Boogie _’smacked you around’_.  Are you willing to tell me exactly what he did, and how often?”  The children stayed quiet and for the first time Jack could remember, all three of them refused to meet his eyes.  They just looked down at the snowy ground and shifted a bit uncomfortably, and Jack’s heart twinged at just how small and vulnerable they were.  He didn’t ever see them being anything other than loud, disobedient and naughty - and occasionally scared when he frightened them - and seeing them so silent and withdrawn was difficult.  “Please tell me.” he said quietly, and to his surprise Barrel was actually the first one to speak up.

“He used to hit us a lot.” he said so softly that Jack had to strain to hear him.

“And kick us.” said Shock.  It felt painful but also strangely good to actually say it out loud.

“And he said mean things.” Barrel added.  He’d lost count over the years how many times Oogie had called him a stupid, fat, clumsy, worthless little ghoul, but it had still hurt every time.

Lock tried to convince himself that he really didn’t want to admit to all of this, but there was something very, _very_ deep down inside of him that was begging to let the truth be known.  And now that his cohorts had let the cat out of the bag it wasn’t a secret anymore anyway - plus he’d been the one to accidentally mention the fact that Oogie smacked them around in the first place so he might as well speak up now, too.

“And strangle us.  Stuff like that.” he said, still looking at the ground.  “But it’s no big deal, we’re tough enough to take it.”  He was trying to sound strong, but failing pretty miserably.

Jack was in an absolute agony of guilt.  How could he not have noticed?  He had always assumed that all of the many injuries the trick-or-treaters had sustained over the years were from their own rowdy behavior - and certainly some of them were, just based on what he had observed firsthand - but suddenly he wondered just how many black eyes, bruises, missing teeth and broken bones had been inflicted on them by Oogie Boogie instead of from rough play.  “How long had it been going on?” he murmured, and the children shrugged.

“Pretty much since forever.” said Lock.

“When we were really little sometimes he wouldn’t feed us.” added Barrel.  Shock didn’t say anything.

Jack’s guilt was almost unbearable at this point, and if he’d had tear ducts a few tears definitely would have escaped from his sockets now.  He was going to spend the rest of his days trying to make it up to the trio and personally ensuring that from this point on they would always be safe and well taken care of.

“I know I’ve failed you up until this point, but from here on out I promise you: no one will ever hurt you again.  Never.  I will make sure of it.  Do you understand?”

The children nodded and then finally looked at him.  They didn’t know what to say, but while Oogie used to lie to them all the time, so far Jack never had… so they were just barely able to believe that perhaps he was telling the truth right now, too.  That perhaps they really would be safe from now on.  Then Shock was struck with a horrifying thought: Jack had said that he would personally make sure they were safe, so did that mean he was expecting to keep a much closer eye on them?  Did he mean that he wanted them to move in with him instead of Oogie Boogie?  “We don’t have to move in with you or anything, do we?” she asked hesitantly, and both Lock and Barrel’s eyes widened.

“No way are we moving in with you!” Lock practically shouted.  While he was glad that Jack was going to make sure nobody hurt them, the idea of living under his thumb was absolutely unacceptable.

“Please don’t make us!” Barrel squeaked fearfully, and despite all that had just transpired Jack couldn’t help but laugh.

“Not if you don’t want to, no.” he said.  He hadn’t even considered that possibility, but truthfully he didn’t think he would have the time to devote to keeping the three of them in line outside of his Pumpkin King duties.  Not to mention he didn’t know the first thing about caring for children, as evidenced by his utter failure to recognize the signs of their abuse.

“We don’t want to!” they all three said in unison.

“Very well, you’re free to stay in your treehouse, if that’s what you’d prefer.” he chuckled, and they nodded vigorously.  “But I will be visiting you much more frequently to see how you’re doing.” he finished, and all three of the children rolled their eyes.  It didn’t sound like they’d be able to talk him out of that one.

“We don’t need you to check on us.” Shock tried anyway.

“We’ve been taking care of ourselves forever.” Lock said.

Jack smiled, but said in a slightly firmer tone of voice, “Be that as it may, I will be visiting you anyway.  And I hope that you will come to me from now on if you need anything.”

“Right now we just need you to leave us alone.” said Lock.  It had really been too much serious talking and it was getting boring.  Now that there were no more secrets he just wanted to get back to playing.

Jack wasn’t offended by this impertinence one bit - he actually felt relieved that Lock was back to his regular naughty self and he grinned and patted the little devil on the knee.  Lock flinched a bit, but Jack was glad that at least it was a much less severe flinch than usual and he hoped that one day they wouldn’t instinctively recoil from physical contact at all.

“Alright then, I’ll let you get back to it.  And don’t forget to give Lucius his pitchfork back after you’re through playing with it, please.”

“Sure thing, Jack!” Shock lied as she hopped down from the wall, equally relieved that the serious talking time was over.

“We won’t forget, Jack!” snickered Lock as he hopped down after her.  He felt that _technically_ that wasn’t a lie - they wouldn’t keep the pitchfork because they _forgot_ to give it back, but rather because they didn’t _want_ to give it back.  Sticking it up a tree would be much more fun, or perhaps dropping it into the pond if they ever managed to break through the ice with it.

“Bye, Jack!” finished Barrel as he scurried after his cohorts.  He felt as if a massive weight had been lifted off of his little shoulders and he skidded back onto the ice without a care in the world, laughing right along with his friends when he fell and slid head-first into a snowbank.

Jack watched them with his heart feeling just a tiny bit lighter himself.  While there was no erasing his past mistakes, failures were nothing if not opportunities to learn - and he felt that this particular lesson was even more important than learning to keep his skull out of other people’s holidays.  He headed back towards where he had left Sally - there was yet another example of his failure to recognize what was plainly in front of him all along.  _‘You really need to work on your observation skills, Jack.’_ he thought a bit ruefully to himself, but then sighed and tried his best to shake it off.  For no matter how bad things got, Jack was nothing if not an optimist and tomorrow was always another day.  And for Lock, Shock and Barrel at least, those days were going to be a whole lot better from here on out.


	24. Flames and Flatulence

"C'mon, I dare you!" Lock said, holding up a match and grinning wickedly.

"No way, I'm not gonna light my butt on fire!" said Barrel, shaking his head and holding out his palms defensively. Lock had the craziest ideas sometimes, and there was no way Barrel was signing up to be a guinea pig on this one.

"You're not lighting your _butt_ on fire, you're lighting your _fart_ on fire!" Lock insisted, holding the match closer to his littlest cohort.

Shock looked at both of them with an expression of absolute disdain. "He probably _would_ end up lighting his butt on fire, he's totally klutzy, you know that, idiot. And that's disgusting, boys are so gross."

Lock turned to her with an evil smirk. "Why don't _you_ do it, then? You're not klutzy, right?"

"No, I'm not klutzy, but I already told you, that's disgusting! And besides, girls don't even fart." she lied, crossing her arms and sticking her nose in the air.

"Yeah right, everybody farts!" Lock sneered, but Barrel wasn't convinced. Shock was pretty smart about things, after all, so maybe girls really didn't fart? Though he thought that would be pretty weird if they didn't.

"Well either way, I'm not doing it!" she said stubbornly.

Lock had known she wouldn't actually do it - he just wanted to tease her. He turned back to Barrel and said, "C'mon you weenie, I double-dare you!"

"No way!" Barrel shook his head harder.

"I triple-toad-dare you!" Lock said, looking even more devious.

"I don't even have to fart right now anyway!" said Barrel, scooting away from the waving match.

Shock rolled her eyes. "Do it yourself, moron!"

"Yeah, light your own butt on fire!" said Barrel, feeling glad that Shock was on his side this time.

"Fine, just 'cus you two are scaredy cats!"

"We're not scared, we're just not stupid and gross like you are!" Shock snapped. "Where'd you even learn about this?" In all of her reading, Shock had never heard of such a thing.

"I overheard some human kids were talking about it last Halloween."

"And since when do humans know anything?"

"They know _some_ things! Come on, it sounds hilarious!" Lock insisted. Barrel agreed that it did sound super funny, but he still wasn't putting a match that close to his rear end, especially when - according to Lock - it should turn the lit match into a sizable flame.

"Hilarious to _you_ , maybe. I'm going over there, I don't want to smell your gross, nasty farts, you sicko!" She walked across the room to sit on the sofa and sharpen her pocket knife, though secretly she _was_ just a _tiny_ bit curious to see if it would actually do what Lock said it would. Barrel followed her example and scooted farther away from him, too, and after a moment Shock said, "I can't believe we're sitting around waiting for you to have to fart. This is the stupidest thing in the entire universe."

"Just you wait, it's gonna be hilarious."

"I hate you."

Lock just shrugged and grinned even more naughtily. He was completely convinced that this was going to be the funniest thing ever and finally, after awhile, he was ready. "Okay, here it comes!" he said excitedly, and Barrel couldn't help but giggle a little. Lock lifted up his tail, struck the match and held it right next to his rear end… and the match flame suddenly flared up with a flash of fire. Barrel started laughing hysterically and Lock did as well, until Shock pointed at him and screeched:

"YOUR BUTT IS ON FIRE!"

"Yeah right, you liar!" Lock laughed, but when he saw Barrel's eyes go wide he noticed that his rear end _did_ feel a little bit warmer than usual. He looked behind him and saw that flames were actually licking up his pants and the back of his shirt, and even though somehow it didn't hurt he began to panic anyway. "HOLY CRAP!" he shouted, dropping the spent match and without even thinking he started slapping his butt and backside with his bare hands to try and smother the flames. It didn't work, the fire just kept growing, so he did the only other thing he could think of: he ran to the bathroom and turned on the tub, and his cohorts ran after him - there was no way they were going to miss it if Lock burned up to a crisp. Great clouds of steam rolled off of him as he threw himself beneath the running water and finally extinguished the fire.

"Are you okay!?" Barrel squeaked as he and Shock peered over the rim of the tub.

"Yeah, I think so…" Lock said a bit uncertainly, but he really did feel fine. A little bit warm, but nothing hurt.

"Well your clothes aren't okay!" said Shock, now starting to laugh, and Lock looked behind him to see that his pants above his tail and his shirt halfway up his back had been burned away to nothing. Barrel began laughing too, and instead of being mad at his cohorts for laughing at his misfortune, Lock started laughing as well.

"That was _awesome!_ It didn't even hurt!" he said excitedly, for he was absolutely ecstatic that it seemed he was impervious to fire, just like the grown-up devils. He'd never been able to start fires from nothing, but at least he'd just found out that fire couldn't hurt him and he couldn't wait to play around with this new discovery some more.

"Congratulations, you're not a completely crappy devil after all." Shock said sarcastically. The fact that he'd discovered it by lighting a fart was still totally stupid and disgusting, but even she had to admit it was pretty cool that he apparently couldn't be hurt by fire. She wondered if he'd always been immune to fire and they just didn't know it or if it had happened recently… for if he could suddenly tolerate fire then Shock thought that perhaps she might be able to do some witchy things that she'd never been able to do yet, too.

Lock climbed out of the tub and gave Barrel a high-five as the little ghoul laughed even harder and squealed, "That was so cool!" Watching Lock run through the house with his clothes on fire had been highly entertaining, especially now that Barrel knew he wasn't hurt - but Barrel was now extra-glad that he hadn't let Lock talk him into doing it first because he was quite certain that even grown-up ghouls weren't immune to fire.

"Let's go start a bonfire outside and see how long I can stay in it!" Lock laughed as he ran out the door and Barrel followed him, grinning widely. Shock stood there in the bathroom for a moment, torn between following them or just staying inside. One one hand, it would be fascinating and probably really neat to see how long Lock could stay standing in a bonfire… but on the other hand, obviously doing that would burn all of his clothes off and she _really_ didn't want to see that. Then it occurred to her that despite the fact that he'd just burned a sizable chunk of his pants and shirt away, Lock probably hadn't even thought about what would happen if he put his whole body in a fire. She smirked evilly and decided to go watch just so she could tell him what a moron he was after he ended up stark naked outside for everyone to see… after all, she was perfectly capable of making fun of him with her eyes closed.


	25. Mycology for Beginners - Part 1

Deep in the pit beneath the trick-or-treater's treehouse, a cooking lesson was taking place. "Did you read that recipe book I gave ya', princess?" asked the Boogie Man, and Shock nodded.

"Yes, Mr. Oogie Boogie!"

"That's good. Did you have any trouble with it?"

The little witch shook her head. The truth was that there were a few words she wasn't sure about still, even though she spent all morning trying to figure it out. But she didn't want to let Oogie know that because one never knew how he would take such information. Usually he helped her, but sometimes he called her stupid and she didn't want to take that chance today.

He had put Lock to work collecting the firewood, and now the little devil was busily chopping it up with an ax that was just slightly too large for a four year old child, but through sheer force of will he managed it. Oogie Boogie had also sent Barrel out to set and collect some traps that were spread all around the lair and the treehouse above, and now he gestured to Shock to come stand on a chair at the counter beside him. She scurried over and climbed up to plop the heavy recipe book down on the counter, and she was confronted with gigantic piles of herbs and dead snakes.

"Chop 'em up nice and fine." said Oogie. "You're gonna make the soup you saw on page thirteen, and ol' Oogie'll help you." She opened up the book to the chosen recipe, then took a large knife and began chopping the herbs and snakes while Oogie supervised. After awhile, Barrel came into the kitchen with an enormous smile on his round little face and dragging a heavy cage along the floor behind him.

"Look what I did!" he babbled excitedly, tugging on Oogie's great burlap ankle and grinning up from the floor. A large, fat rat was squeaking fearfully inside of the cage.

"Well now! Look at you, little man, quite the hunter already, ain't 'cha? You're gonna give Lock a run for his money at this rate!" Oogie chortled, leaning way down to pick up the trap with one hand and pat Barrel on the head with his other, and Barrel twisted his fingers together and squirmed around in delight at the praise.

Lock stopped mid-swing and frowned over at them. "That's not hunting! That's a trap!" he said angrily. Didn't Oogie know that _he_ was the very best at hunting out of the three of them? That _he_ could see the sharpest and aim the most accurately and run the fastest? Any old idiot could set a trap and wait for something to wander into it! But before he could get too upset, Oogie chuckled.

"Now now, don't get all bent outta shape, devil boy. You're still the best little hunter ol' Oogie's ever seen." This soothed Lock's ego a bit so he went back to chopping the firewood, but he still glared at his younger cohort for a few minutes. Barrel was completely oblivious to Lock's irritation and the fact that Oogie said Lock was the better hunter - he was just happy with his catch and the Boogie Man's approval of it. He watched wide-eyed as Oogie Boogie brought the cage up and held it so the door was facing Shock and said, "Now then, knock it out and clean it up and put it in the soup, princess."

Shock was pretty good at this by now, but getting bit or scratched was still a real danger if she wasn't quick enough. She steeled her nerves and flipped the cage hatch, then waited for the rat inside to turn away from her… then she opened the door and snatched it by it's thick, naked tail. Now Lock had paused in his wood-chopping to watch the show as well, and Shock shrieked in half-glee and half-fear as she swung the squeaking rat through the air and knocked it hard against the tabletop.

"Is it dead?" asked Barrel, standing up on his tiptoes and trying to see, but it was futile.

"Close enough!" laughed Oogie, then he swung a meat cleaver down and chopped the head right off of the rat, coming dangerously close to Shock's fingers in the process. "Now, you know what to do!" he said to her, and she picked up her nearby knife and started skinning and gutting it, just like he had taught her. Oogie popped the severed rat head into his enormous mouth as if it were a chocolate chip, then handed the empty cage back down to Barrel. "Now, why don'tcha go reset this and we'll see if you get lucky again." Barrel nodded as he struggled to carry the heavy trap, but eventually he had to give up and put it on the floor and drag it back out of the kitchen. "How's that firewood coming?" Oogie called to Lock as he lumbered over to the icebox.

"Almost done!" The little devil replied, then started swinging the ax faster - he didn't want to keep Oogie Boogie waiting.

"You're so slow!" Shock taunted, then threw the rat skin at him from across the room, just because.

Lock dodged it and snarled, "Shut up! No I'm not!" Then he chucked a rather large piece of firewood back at her with both hands and she had to duck to avoid it. It hit the wall with a splintering thud, and Oogie Boogie barked out a laugh.

"Watch it there, devil boy! You don't wanna kill your meal ticket now, do ya'?" Lock wasn't sure what he meant by 'meal ticket', but if he meant Shock, well, then Oogie Boogie was wrong about him not wanting to kill her right in that moment. He stuck the ax into the wall and picked up as much of the firewood as he could carry, then threw it into the great big fireplace and began arranging it so that it would make the best fire, just as Oogie had taught him. When he got it set up just right, he took a quick look over his shoulder to make sure that nobody was watching, then snapped his fingers once and concentrated as hard as he could, trying to start the fire. He'd never been able to do it before, but he never stopped trying, hoping that maybe one day… but today was not that day, so he sighed to himself and instead struck a match against the stone hearth and then sat back on his haunches to watch the flames grow.

By now Shock had the rat finely diced and she added it to the pot of herbs and snake meat as Oogie returned holding a larger cauldron full of bat broth and sat it in the fireplace over Lock's fire. Then he took the pot of meat and herbs off of the table and handed it down to the little devil and said, "Dump this in the cauldron." and Lock quickly obeyed. It was extremely heavy but he managed to lift it up and over his head to dump the contents into the broth. Oogie usually made Lock do most of the heavy lifting out of the trio, claiming that he was _'too stupid'_ to learn how to read like Shock. _'You're a dim-witted hothead, devil boy, but at least you got some muscle.'_ Oogie knew that Lock really wasn't stupid, but he certainly wasn't as smart as Shock and Oogie also hoped that convincing the little devil that he was stupid would help keep him in line… but this approach usually failed, for Lock's natural confidence in his own brilliance was usually next to impossible to squash down. Oogie also made him do anything that required getting so close to fire, claiming that it was Lock's duty and saying _'If you can't start a fire, you'd at least better be able to stand next to one if you're any sort of devil at all.'_ What the children didn't know was that Oogie himself was actually rather vulnerable to fire, as burlap and bugs were quite capable of combustion.

"Now keep the fire strong and watch the soup, devil boy. If it goes cold or boils over I'll whoop you into next Halloween." he said in a more stern tone of voice, and Lock nodded vigorously and hurried to bring over more firewood, but kept his eye on the fireplace.

Oogie looked at Shock next. "And you - practice your reading and check on the soup and taste it every ten minutes. If you let it burn, I'll whoop you right _past_ next Halloween."

"Yes, Mr. Oogie Boogie!" she said, then pulled the heavy cookbook and a ladle off of the table and hopped down from the chair to sit on the floor by the fire next to Lock. Just then Barrel re-entered the room and Oogie said, "Start cleanin' up, little man, and steer clear of the fireplace. We don't need you fallin' in and startin' a grease fire with all your blubber." Lock and Shock snickered even though they didn't know what 'blubber' meant or what the difference between a grease fire and a normal fire was - but it sounded mean, so therefore it was funny. Barrel just nodded and hurried to start scraping the mess off of the table and into the trash as Oogie waddled heavily out of the kitchen. Unlike Lock, Barrel was not at all confident in his own brilliance and it took a lot of work for him not to look sad whenever Oogie said something mean - and while he also didn't know exactly what Oogie had just said to him, it had definitely sounded mean - but even if he managed to hold in his sad face, it still hurt inside all the same.

Fortunately, between Lock and Shock's combined efforts the soup turned out just fine and neither of them got whooped into next Halloween. After an hour Oogie returned and checked the soup himself, and Shock waited anxiously for his verdict… and happily his face folded into a grin and with a pat on her head he congratulated her on her success. They all sat down for some dinner together, then shared jokes with one another while Oogie helped them learn to play poker. Then he gave all of them their own candy bar and a pat on the head, then sent them back up to their treehouse for the night, each child carrying a bucket of soup that would feed them for the rest of the week.

…

The following week he called them back down first thing in the morning and they entered his lair with their heads bowed low until he said, "Ol' Oogie's got some haunting to do in the Human World. I'll be back tomorrow." Then he turned his dark, shadowy eyes to Shock. "We're just about outta soup, so I want ya' to have some more waiting for me. Straw toadstool and witch hazel, with a whole heaping of bugs. You got it, princess?"

"Yes, Mr. Oogie Boogie!" she said, and she wasn't sure whether to stand up proudly or shrink back in uncertainty, for this was the very first time that Oogie had told her to cook all by herself. But she felt reasonably sure she could manage it until he added:

"You'll have to go scrounge up the ingredients. My cupboard's as empty as dusty ol' Jack's skull with you three eatin' me outta house and home." Lock and Barrel giggled at this description of Jack Skellington, but Shock's anxiety ratcheted up threefold. She'd read and read as much as she could, until her brain was so full that she didn't think there was any room left… but there were so many different kinds of toadstools that she wasn't sure she could pick the right one on her own. But she didn't have much of a choice - she was worried she'd be punished if she said she wasn't sure, so she kept her mouth closed and tried to look as confident as Lock always did.

That afternoon while Lock and Barrel were playing war games with one another, Shock was holed up in her bedroom pouring over her cookbooks and books about fungi and herbs. It wasn't fair, she thought bitterly to herself. Those rotten boys always got to mess around while she was stuck doing most of the work. Sure, Lock had to do a lot of work, too… and Barrel was only three years old so he was basically useless… but it still wasn't fair. But what could she do about it? If there was one thing the children had learned, it was that 'fair' wasn't a word in the Boogie Man's vocabulary. Right about the time she'd fretted and practically worked herself into a frenzy about collecting the right ingredients and not messing up the soup, Lock and Barrel came bursting into her room without knocking.

"Hi Shock, whatcha doing?" Barrel said with a wide, toothy grin, running over to where she was sitting on her inner tube bed and he just about bounced her right out of it when he flopped down onto it beside her.

"Reading!" she said irritably, then bonked him on the head with her _'Mycology for Beginners'_ book. Lock started laughing at that, then also ran over to the bed and Shock tried to kick him before he could jump, but she was unsuccessful and the little devil landed heavily on top of both of his cohorts. Barrel giggled but Shock smacked Lock with the book as well - he was just lucky that he hadn't popped her mattress with how hard he'd just jumped on it, otherwise she would have tried to shove her book right up his stupid, pointy nose.

"Reading is booooring…" said Lock, wiggling around onto his back in-between his friends.

"You're just too dumb to read!" Shock said meanly, and Barrel giggled harder.

"No I'm not." replied Lock, casually putting his hands behind his head and elbowing her in the face in the process.

"Oogie says you are!" She shoved his elbow away.

"I'm not as dumb as Barrel!"

Barrel stopped giggling. "I'm not dumb!" he protested, but his cohorts ignored him.

"Why are you reading? Me and Barrel wanna go play outside and you should, too!" said Lock, changing the subject.

"Because I have to make soup, stupid! And I have to make sure I get the right stuff to go in it."

"Okay, so let's go get the stuff and then we can play!" said Lock, and Barrel nodded.

Shock supposed that was actually a pretty good idea. After all, she'd read about as much as she possibly could and the sooner she made the soup, the sooner she could be done with it and they could enjoy their time free from Oogie's chores. "Okay fine, let's go!" she said as they all three rolled off of her bed, then Lock yelled:

"Race you!" and he shoved Barrel so hard that the little ghoul nearly fell over as he darted past him, and before Barrel could even follow Shock smacked him in the back of the head with her book as she tore after Lock as well.

"No fair!" Barrel hollered as he pulled his pants up a little higher and took off after his cohorts as fast as his short, stumpy little legs would take him.

…

Out in the pumpkin patch, Shock had put Lock and Barrel to work collecting insects for the soup. They had whined and complained and procrastinated, but Shock wouldn't budge and refused to play with them until all of the ingredients were collected so they finally gave up and went hunting beneath the pumpkins, leaves and stones for all sorts of creepy crawly bugs. Shock was searching around the edges of the dark, eerie forest bordering the pumpkin patch for straw toadstools. She'd already collected plenty of witch hazel - that was easy - but the toadstools were trickier. She narrowed in on a cluster of smallish, beigeish mushrooms that looked the most like her book illustrations compared to anything else she'd found so far, so she plucked handful after handful of them until her basket was full. When they had all three collected enough ingredients, they headed back to the treehouse and tucked the food away in their cupboards.

" _Now_ can we finally play?" Lock whined, and while Shock still felt a little nervous about cooking without Oogie to guide her, she really did need to de-stress for awhile. With a sly smile to herself, she grabbed a smallish pumpkin off of the cupboard shelf and suddenly whipped around and lobbed it at Lock without warning.

"Tag, you're it!" she cackled, and while he managed to dodge it fast enough to avoid getting hit in the head, the pumpkin did hit him in the shoulder and just about knocked him over.

"That's not how you play tag, dummy!" Lock hollered as she darted out of the kitchen. He took off running after her and Barrel followed along, just barely managing to avoid tripping over the now-bruised pumpkin on the floor.

They played outside for hours: throwing things at one another, trying to hit one another with sticks, playing hide-and-seek and daring one another to eat live bugs and worms the way Oogie Boogie did. As dinner time crept closer and closer, Shock began to feel anxious again. "I need to go back and make the soup." she finally said as she turned around back towards the treehouse, and the boys weren't sure if they should follow or just keep playing without her. Eventually they decided to follow, but instead of joining her in the kitchen they just hung out in the living room watching T.V., eating candy and arm-wrestling. One again Shock was struck with irritation at having to do all the cooking by herself, but at the same time it gave her a sense of pride and superiority. And she supposed it wasn't Lock or Barrel's fault that they were younger than her and as dumb as a box of rocks. On that thought she opened up the battered, stained cookbook to the recipe for straw toadstool, witch hazel and insect soup, collected her ingredients, knife and cauldron, and got started.


	26. Mycology for Beginners - Part 2

“Lock!” Shock called over her shoulder as she dumped the last bits of witch hazel into the cauldron.  “Come make a fire!”

“I’m busy!” came his muffled voice from the living room.  The arm-wrestling had escalated into full-body wrestling and now Barrel was sitting on his chest and trying to smother him with a pillow.

“Do it now!” Shock yelled again.  She was already grumpy about having to make dinner all by herself, and now that rotten devil wasn’t even doing the _one_ stinking job he had around here.

“Make me!” he shouted, finally pushing Barrel off of him and onto the floor, and the little ghoul landed with a thud and a grunt.

“DO YOU WANT TO EAT OR NOT!?” Shock screamed, and that was enough to get Lock to his feet and into the kitchen.  He had just finished arranging the wood in the oven when Barrel came into the room.

“What smells funny?” Barrel asked, absentmindedly scratching his tummy with one hand and Shock’s hackles went up at this perceived slight against her cooking.

“It’s straw toadstool and witch hazel soup, bat-brain!” she snapped.

Lock snickered a bit as he struck a match and lit the fire because seeing Shock mad was funny, then he sniffed the air several times.  Everything smelled fine to him - in fact, the soup actually smelled quite tasty, but he wasn’t going to tell her that.  “I don’t smell anything.” he said, closing up the oven door again while Shock adjusted the cauldron on the top of the stove.

“You’re probably just smelling yourself, stinky!” Shock sneered, and Barrel raised one arm to sniff his armpit.

“I don’t stink.”

“Yeah you do, you smell like flowers!” she said even more meanly, and Lock laughed.

“Yeah, and cute little baby puppies!”

“And other gross stuff like that!” finished Shock as she placed a lid over the rapidly-warming soup.

“No I don’t…” Barrel pouted as he climbed up onto his chair.  Dinner smelled weird but he was still pretty hungry, and his cohorts would have to work a lot harder than just calling him stinky to make him upset enough to skip dinner.

After about an hour the soup was finished - according to the cookbook, at least - so Lock handed Shock up a ladle so she could plop some soup down into his bowl.  Barrel held out his bowl for her to fill as well, then she filled up a bowl for herself before climbing down off of the footstool by the stove to take her seat at the table between her cohorts.  Lock had started eating immediately, but Barrel was poking his spoon around and examining the soup carefully.

“It doesn’t look right.” he said, wrinkling up his little pug nose.  “Or smell right.”

“What’s wrong with it?” Lock said with his mouth full.  “Tastes okay to me.  You’re just dumb.”

“I’m not dumb.  There’s something bad about it…”  Barrel brought a spoonful up to his nose for a deeper sniff, and then put it back in his bowl.  There was definitely something wrong.

Lock was hoping that Shock would punch Barrel for saying her soup was bad, and her first instinct was to do just that… but something made her pause.  Barrel normally wasn’t a picky eater at all.  She’d never known him to turn down food before, so it was definitely suspicious that he wouldn’t eat this.  None of the children knew it, but ghouls actually had quite sensitive palates and keen senses of smell compared to many other species and Barrel could pick up flavors and scents that his cohorts could not.  All Shock knew was that it was truly bizarre for Barrel to refuse food and it made her a little uneasy.  She looked down into her own bowl and suddenly her mind was racing - what if she’d made a mistake?  What if she hadn’t chosen the right toadstools after all?  Could Barrel perhaps be right about something for the first time in his three useless years of existence?  She put her spoon down just as Barrel pushed his bowl away, but Lock picked his own bowl up and chugged until it was empty.  Then he let out an enormous belch and Barrel snort-giggled, but Shock was too preoccupied to laugh.  If Barrel wouldn’t eat it, then maybe Oogie wouldn’t eat it, either, and then he’d probably whoop her right through the next _two_ Halloweens.

“I’m just gonna have candy for dinner.” Barrel decided, but he started cleaning up the dinner mess anyway.  He knew Shock would hit him if he didn’t, so it was better to just get it over and done with.  He hopped down off of his chair and Lock started to follow him… but then Lock’s stomach churned violently and he stopped with only one foot on the floor and half of his rear end still on his chair.  Then his stomach lurched again, making a weird, low grumbling noise and his pale face got even paler as he was hit with a wave of nausea stronger than he’d ever felt before.  He stayed right where he was, staring wide-eyed at the tabletop as his stomach seemed to do backflips inside of him, and then - alarmingly - the churning sensation spread even lower, right into his guts.

Shock noticed him standing weirdly half-off of his chair and said, “What’s your problem?”  It couldn’t be the soup, could it?  But before Lock could answer her, he suddenly threw up before he even realized it was happening - and therefore he hadn’t had time to bend over or try to aim for his soup bowl and instead he puked a fair distance across the kitchen.

“GROSS!” both of his cohorts shrieked at the same time, backing away from him as he clutched his stomach and shakily slid the other half of his butt off of the chair to stand a bit unsteadily on the floor.  He just looked at them helplessly and tried to keep his mouth shut, but it was futile and now his white face seemed to go slightly green as he puked again - though at least this time he managed to bend over and keep his vomit contained to a relatively smaller area.

“Go barf in the toilet, dummy!” Shock screeched, and Lock nodded weakly and tried to do so, then the roiling in his intestines intensified and suddenly he was worried he might actually crap his pants if he didn’t get to the bathroom immediately.  He started unfastening his pants as he ran down the hall and just barely got onto the toilet in time before his body gave up the fight.  He spent the next forty-five minutes alternating between vomiting and the worst diarrhea he’d ever had in his four years of existence, and one unfortunate time he actually threw up at the same time he was sitting on the toilet, hitting the side of the tub instead.  When he finally ran out of anything to puke or poop he spent the next twenty minutes dry-heaving while his stomach continued to lurch and cramp, and he couldn’t ever, _ever_ remember feeling so unbelievably awful.

Once the sound of his retching had died down for a few minutes, Shock and Barrel cautiously poked their heads into the bathroom and found him laying on the floor, curled up in a ball on his side and shivering a bit.  “Why’d you throw up?” Barrel asked, starting to giggle.  Throwing up was gross, but it was also really funny when _he_ wasn’t the one suffering through it.

Shock had an uncomfortable feeling that she knew exactly why Lock had probably thrown up, but it was just too embarrassing to admit out loud so she focused her thoughts elsewhere: “You puked on the tub!” she snapped at him when she caught sight of the vomit dripping down the dirty, chipped porcelain to pool on the floor, and - unhappily - she realized that it looked pretty much exactly like her soup.  Apparently it hadn’t even been in Lock’s system long enough to have changed in appearance.  “ _And_ you barfed all over the kitchen!  Clean it up, stupid!” she snapped again, but Lock only shivered and clenched up into an even tighter ball on the floor.

“I don’t… feel good…” he moaned.

Shock gritted her teeth, still not quite willing to admit to herself that her soup could possibly have been the cause.  Surely Lock was lying like he always did when he was trying to avoid work.  Surely he must have gotten all of the poison out of his system by now and he was just exaggerating to get out of having to clean up his own barf.  She angrily stomped over to him - careful to avoid any puddles of puke - and was just about to kick him in the rear end or step on his tail, but when she got closer she saw just how green he was.  He looked more like a witch than a devil, except that there was a significant amount of sweat all over his face and his yellow eyes were a bit glassy as he lay there taking slow, shallow breaths.  He really did look extremely unwell, and as proficient and frequent of a liar as he was, even Shock didn’t think he was faking it this time and she began to feel scared.  Some toadstools were so poisonous they could kill even the strongest of creatures, and even though Lock was an annoying pain in her butt and she was always telling him to go jump off a bridge or walk into traffic, she didn’t _really_ want him to die.

Barrel was still giggling a little bit, but then he looked up at his eldest cohort’s nervous face and he started to feel a little scared, too.  “What’s wrong with Lock?  Why’d he throw up?” he asked again, but Shock ignored him, wracking her brain to figure out what to do.  Oogie hadn’t taught her anything about poison antidotes - in fact, the little witch didn’t even know the word ‘antidote’ at all.  All she knew was that this was a situation that she was not equipped to handle, and with Oogie gone until the next day it was clear that they needed some sort of outside help.  But who?  Who could help them?  And even if Shock could figure out who could help them, who would even be _willing_ to help them?  Maybe they could go to Jack Skellington… he was the Pumpkin King after all, and the children knew he had some pretty impressive abilities.  Surely Jack could fix anything.  But on the other hand, Jack could be very stern and very scary.  True, usually he was very kind and gentle with them, but he was still pretty intimidating.  Plus he was always so busy - probably far too busy to be bothered with the troubles of three little children like them.  Dr. Finkelstein was out of the question.  The mad doctor was just way too creepy, and besides that, they had played so many tricks on him that if they went to him for help he’d probably just finish the job the poison had started and Lock would wind up as another ghost in the graveyard - if devils could even turn into ghosts.  Shock really wasn’t sure.  But either way, she didn’t want a ghost for a best friend, she wanted Lock - difficult as that was to admit.

There was only one final possibility she could think of: Helgamine.  She was the witch who had found and named Shock, who had been Shock’s primary caretaker before the trio went to live with Oogie Boogie.  And while Helgamine and other other witches didn’t take care of her anymore, and none of those same witches ever seemed pleased to see her and her cohorts, and while they and most of the other townspeople were not kind to the children when they came to town, Helgamine had always been just a teeny tiny bit less-mean to Shock.  Shock knew that witches worked with potions and spells full-time, so she finally decided that was their best bet of making sure that Lock didn’t end up a corpse in the cold ground.

Just then the little devil stiffened up and his eyes rolled back in his head, then his entire body began to shake.  Shock and Barrel didn’t know what a seizure was, but they knew that something incredibly bad was happening to their middle cohort.  “We have to get him in the tub!” Shock said, trying to sound brave even though inside she was panicking.  Barrel was such a baby that if he knew she was scared then he would get scared, too, and he might even cry.  And nothing was worse than when Barrel cried.  As if it had heard them, the tub squatted down as low to the floor as it could get while Shock and Barrel grabbed their shaking friend and heaved him into the tub.  They tried to be gentle but he still landed against the porcelain with a ‘thunk’… but then he finally stopped shaking as his cohorts climbed into the tub after him.  Shock and Barrel held onto their friend with one hand and the side of the tub with their other, trying to stay steady as the lumbering tub hurried out the treehouse door.

Then Lock blearily opened his eyes and mumbled, “Wha happen…?”  He was drooling a little bit and Barrel almost laughed, but then he saw a trickle of blood escape the corner of Lock’s mouth and his eyes widened in horror.

Shock noticed the blood as well, but kept her expression neutral.  “We’re going to get help.  Just don’t puke anymore!” she said firmly as the tub trundled and lurched towards town as fast as it’s legs would take them… she only hoped it was fast enough.


	27. Mycology for Beginners - Part 3

Shock had been living with Oogie Boogie for a little over a year and a half now, but that wasn’t nearly long enough as far as the witches were concerned.  They would be quite happy if that naughty little brat and her equally naughty friends never darkened the coven doorstep again, yet here they were pounding on the heavy front door and shouting for help.  Well, two out of the three of them, at least.  Zeldaborne opened the door just a crack and peeked out with one squinting, suspicious eye, searching for the third of them: that rotten little devil who was always mouthing off and starting fights.  When she didn’t spot him she closed the door a bit more, ready and waiting for him to jump out and pull some sort of obnoxious prank from out of sight.  Before she could close the door completely, however, Shock piped up:

“Lock’s really sick!  He’s puking and he’s all green and sweaty and his mouth is bleeding!”

Zeldaborne scoffed.  They’d pulled this prank before, feigning illness in an attempt to gain access to forbidden places to cause trouble.  “And why should I believe you, you little liar?” she sneered.

“He really is!” insisted Barrel, though not quite as forcefully as Shock.  The witches were powerful and mysterious, and he was a little bit afraid of them.  “He ate something bad and now he’s sick!”

Shock took just enough time to grit her teeth at this description of her soup, but she knew it was true and it was rather humiliating.  She pushed it to the back of her mind for now and said, “We’re telling the truth, he’s in the tub, look!”  She moved to the side and she and Barrel pointed to the tub parked in front of the front steps, but Zeldaborne didn’t move.  She was too short to see all the way to the bottom of the tub and the last thing she was going to do was step outside and look over the edge of it - surely Lock was crouched inside and would throw a bucket full of scorpions in her face or pelt her with rocks.

“I don’t think so.  Get out of here.” she snapped, and Shock felt her face turning pink with rage and frustration.  Didn’t that stupid witch know that Lock was currently dying?  That it wasn’t a prank this time?  Barrel’s lip began to tremble - he was already pretty upset about his friend’s condition, and now hearing that the witches wouldn’t help… well, it was overwhelming to his little three year old emotions and he began to cry.  Shock opened her mouth to beg Zeldaborne once again, but before she could speak Helgamine was suddenly at the door and looking down her long, warty nose at the children.

“What’s going on?” she asked suspiciously, though not as suspiciously as Zeldaborne.

“Lock got poisoned or something and now he’s really sick.” Shock admitted, looking desperately up into the older witch’s beady black eyes and hoping that she would believe her.

Helgamine raised one eyebrow and stood up on her tiptoes and stretched out her neck so she could see the little devil laying limply in the bottom of the tub.  “What exactly is the matter with him?” she asked.  He really did look quite ill, but she still wanted a bit more information before opening the doors for the three tricksters.

“He barfed for a really long time and then he went all stiff and started shaking all over and I think he’s dying!” Shock repeated, now feeling so desperate that if the witches made them wait much longer for help she might even start to cry like little baby Barrel was doing.  Then as if on cue, Lock was hit with another seizure and this combined with the tears streaming down Barrel’s face and the particular urgency in Shock’s tone convinced Helgamine that they were actually telling the truth this time.  She didn’t care for the children one bit and if she’d had her way she would happily let the little devil suffer through whatever illness had struck him, but she knew that Jack wouldn’t approve so she sighed and relented.  

“Let them in,” she said, and Zeldaborne begrudgingly opened the door all the way and stepped aside as Helgamine murmured some sort of weird incantation, and with a wave of her hand Lock was lifted right out of the tub to float in midair.  Shock and Barrel gaped in awe of this impressive display of magic, then followed Helgamine and their shaking, floating friend into the building while Zeldaborne brought up the rear.

“Behave yourselves or so help me, your little devil friend won’t be the only one in bad shape.” she grumbled as she closed the door behind them, but the children ignored her.  They were too worried about Lock to even think about causing mischief anyway.  Helgamine led them into a spooky, dimly-lit circular room that was chock full of various cauldrons, books and jars of herbs, dried lizards, toads and bats, and even some preserved body parts such as eyeballs and tongues.  If Shock and Barrel hadn’t been so distracted, it would have been quite fascinating.  As it was, they watched as Helgamine brought their quivering friend down to the floor where he at last stopped seizing and lay still.

“If you cause any trouble I’ll hex all three of you, got it?” Helgamine said very sternly, and Shock and Barrel nodded.  There was no way they were going to risk that when Lock was in no condition to run out the door before being hexed.  Both witches then knelt beside him and started poking and prodding him.

“Well, he’s not dead yet.  Unfortunately.” muttered Zeldaborne as she peeled back Lock’s eyelids.

“Do you know what he was poisoned with?” asked Helgamine as she pried open the little devil’s mouth to look inside.

“Shock’s soup.” whispered Barrel, rubbing his watery eyes with his hands.  His crying had eased up now that they were finally getting some assistance.

“I thought it was straw toadstools, but I must have picked the wrong ones.” Shock said guiltily, wringing her hands a bit.

Then Helgamine actually grabbed Lock’s tongue and pulled it out to examine it, and Barrel asked, “Why’s his mouth bleeding?”

“It looks like he bit his tongue during the seizure.  It can happen to creatures with less-sharp teeth than he’s got, so no surprise there.”  She let go of his tongue but it stayed lolling out the side of his mouth.  Then she scratched her chin and murmured, “Straw toadstools, you say?  Hmmm… I’ll bet you picked death caps instead.  They can look quite similar to the untrained eye.  Maybe if you’d paid attention to the witchcraft we tried to teach you instead of messing around and breaking everything, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Shock felt half angry and half humiliated.  It was bad enough when Oogie Boogie told her she made a mistake, and while normally she didn’t care one whit what anyone else in Halloween Town thought of her, in this situation it was mortifying.  “Is he going to die?” she asked quietly.

“No.  Lucky for you - and him - we can fix it.”  Helgamine stalked over to a tall, dusty cupboard and rummaged around until she pulled out a small lacquered box with a silver goat head design on the lid, then pulled out what looked like a smooth, round, polished stone.  “This is a bezoar.  It will counteract almost every poison known to human and Halloween Town alike.”  Shock and Barrel watched as Zeldaborne brought over a bottle of some sort of potion and a long, flexible tube, then Helgamine dropped the bezoar into the bottle with a ‘plunk’ and attached the flexible tube to a tight-fitting lid.  The end of the tube was placed in Lock’s mouth and they tilted his head back, then advanced almost the entire tube down his throat.  It was really quite fascinating and Shock and Barrel watched with rapt attention as Helgamine lifted the bottle and they saw the potion slide down the tube and into their comatose friend.  Once the entire potion was gone and only the bezoar was left in the bottle they pulled the tube out, and just as Shock was about to ask what was going on, Lock’s eyes slowly opened and he coughed weakly.

“What happened?  Where am I?” he whimpered, but he was already starting to look far less sweaty and green than before and relief flooded through his friends.  “Why are these old hags here?” he added, and the witches frowned at him even as Barrel giggled a bit.

“You just got sick.” answered Shock, leaving out the part about her soup being the cause and she hoped that he had been so ill that he wouldn’t remember what had happened.

“How do you feel?” asked Helgamine as the little devil slowly sat up.

“Okay…” he said a bit uncertainly, but even though he was rather confused and disoriented, he really didn’t feel sick at all.  In fact, he felt pretty great.

“Good.  Then get out of here.” Zeldaborne said nastily, and now that Lock was healed Shock and Barrel’s show of good behavior flew right out the window.

“No problem, ugly!” snickered Shock as Lock got to his feet, then she pulled a smoke bomb that Oogie had given her out of her pocket and threw it hard against the floor.  The trio laughed raucously as Shock grabbed Lock by his hand and they all three ran out the door, and the yells and curses from the two smoke-engulfed witches was music to their ears.  They leapt into their tub and took off as fast as they could go, and it was a good thing, too, because Helgamine and Zeldaborne made it out the front door just as the tub rounded the corner of a building and went out of range of the hexes the two witches were shouting after them.

As they trundled back towards home, Lock tried to retrace the events that had led to him waking up on the floor of the witch’s coven headquarters.  “Why’d I get poisoned?” he muttered out loud, and before Shock could think up a lie he continued, “Wait… it was your crappy soup, wasn’t it!?”

“No!” she said shrilly, “Me and Barrel ate some while you were puking your guts out and we’re just fine!”

“No we didn’t, it smelled bad.” said Barrel, utterly clueless as to why Shock was lying.  Shock glared at him and shoved him so hard that his head knocked against the side of the tub.  “Ow!” he cried, then tried to shove her right back - but he was pushed aside by Lock who then tackled Shock and started hitting her.

“It was your fault I got sick!  I’m telling Oogie Boogie on you!” Lock shouted.

“Fine, go ahead and tell, you tattle-tale baby!” she taunted him, blocking his punches as best she could.  “Oh boo hoo, Lockie got sick and puked his guts out, you big wimpy baby!”  Secretly she was a little scared that he might actually do it, and it was a distinct possibility that Oogie would be angry with her.  Lock only gritted his teeth and punched her even harder, and Barrel scooted out of their way as much as he could, rubbing the rapidly growing bump on his forehead from where he’d hit the tub.

Lock and Shock continued to fight nearly the whole way home.  It was quite dark and late by the time they arrived, and up until this moment Shock had forgotten that she still had soup to make before the next day.  Panic welled up in her and she shoved Lock off of her and leapt out of the tub as soon as it lurched into it’s place in the bathroom.  “Where are you going, poisoner?” Lock shouted after her, but she ignored him and instead grabbed her basket and ran to the cage elevator and out into the cemetery to search for more toadstools - hopefully the correct ones this time.

 

While Lock and Barrel slept peacefully in their beds, Shock was frantically slaving away in the kitchen, trying to complete the task Oogie had assigned her.  She was thoroughly exhausted by the time she finally put the cauldron on the stove, and she slid down the side of that same stove to sit on the floor and rest for a bit.  She had only intended to close her eyes for a moment before checking the soup, but the need for sleep overpowered her and in no time at all she was passed out on the floor.  Only a few hours later she was awoken by the shouts of her youngest cohort:

“What’s going on!?” Barrel cried, and Shock’s eyes immediately shot open and she saw and smelled the thick black smoke emanating from the cauldron, still on top of the stove.  She leapt to her feet and climbed up the footstool and her stomach seemed to turn to ice as she saw the blackened, burnt mess at the bottom of the cauldron.  Her soup - and possibly her cauldron - was irreparably ruined.  “Is that breakfast?” Barrel asked unhappily.  If he’d thought the soup had smelled bad yesterday, it somehow smelled even worse now.

“What’s burning?” said Lock as he entered the kitchen, then he started laughing when he saw Shock panicking over the ruined food.  “You’re in trouble now!  Oogie’s back and wants to see us!” he cackled.  It seemed that he wouldn’t even need to tattle on Shock to get her in trouble for poisoning him - she was going to get in enough trouble all on her own.  Shock was terrified - she had no choice but to go down to their master right away, and he would no doubt be furious with her for coming empty handed.  Getting yelled at by the Boogie Man was the worst thing ever, and with a heavy heart she followed her cohorts into the elevator and down into the pit, preparing herself for the worst.

Oogie greeted them cheerfully as they knelt on the floor before him, then told them about his latest trip to the human world for a bit.  Shock wondered why he hadn’t mentioned the soup yet… maybe he’d forgotten?  She hoped against hope that he had, but then he said, “Now then, I don’t see any soup waiting for me.  What’s the deal princess, hmm?  You playin’ a trick on ol’ Oogie Boogie?”  He sounded a bit stern, and it took a great deal of courage for Shock to speak up.

“I tried to make it, but I picked the wrong toadstools.  I’m sorry!  It was an accident!”

Oogie raised one brow.  “And how do you know you picked the wrong ones?”

“Because Lock ate it and got really sick.  He barfed a lot, and went all green and two times he got all shaky and stiff and couldn’t say anything.”  She cringed a bit, waiting for him to berate her, but instead he looked at Lock.

“Tell me, did you end up havin’ a mess in your pants as well, devil boy?”  He actually sounded a little amused, and Shock and Barrel both looked at Lock in confusion.  He hadn’t mentioned anything about that.

Lock turned a little bit red in the face.  “No!  I didn’t crap my pants, I did it in the toilet!  I’m not a big baby like Barrel!” he protested, and Barrel frowned.

“Hey!” he said angrily.  It had been ages since he’d been out of diapers, and yet his cohorts still rubbed in the fact that he was younger than them every opportunity they got.

Then Oogie Boogie barked out an enormous guffaw and slapped his knee.  “I’ll bet half my bugs it was death caps you put in there, princess!”

“That’s what Helgamine said, too.” said Shock, and while she didn’t know why Oogie was laughing instead of yelling, she wasn’t going to question it.

“I take it those witches fixed you up, eh?  Ha!  I woulda skipped out on my trip yesterday to see Lock pukin’ and crappin’ his guts out!  Never a dull moment with you knucklehead kids around!” Oogie chuckled.

The children began to giggle a bit as he lumbered over towards the kitchen.  “Come on, you three, let’s get some breakfast.  Lucky for you, ol’ Oogie brought back some food from the human world I think you might like.”  They scurried after him and hopped up onto their chairs, Shock feeling more relieved than she’d felt for quite some time and Lock feeling a tiny bit irritated that she hadn’t gotten in trouble and that Oogie had laughed at him being poisoned… but still, it was better for the Boogie Man to be in a good mood than not.  As Oogie dished up a big heaping of liver and onions for the four of them he chuckled once more, “Well Shock, we’re gonna have to do some remedial lessons on toadstools, I think.  Better keep your calendar cleared for the next few days.”

Shock nodded vigorously.  She didn’t know what ‘remedial’ meant, but she was definitely looking forward to more guidance in the mushroom department and right then and there she made it a goal to graduate up to ‘Mycology for Experts’ as soon as she possibly could.


	28. The Time Bomb - Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so this is coming WAY after the fact, but I always wanted to write a continuation of the Time Bomb incident, which is Chapter 7 of this story, if you need a refresher on what happened! :) But basically Shock just about exploded herself with a bomb and is staying the night at Dr. Finkelstein's lab while she recuperates, while Lock and Barrel go home with Jack for the night.

Lock and Barrel trailed along after Jack down the rough cobblestone road that led from Dr. Finkelstein’s laboratory towards the town square.  It was quite dark by now and their way was lit only by the orangish glow from the wrought iron street lamps and the occasional torch, which cast spooky, flickering light and threw long shadows against the bricks and buildings.  The boys were pretty tired after the excitement of the long day - after all, it wasn’t every day that one of them nearly blew themselves up - but that didn’t stop them from misbehaving now.  They dawdled and wandered off track and Jack had to frequently stop and call them back over.  Lock climbed up onto a low, narrow stone wall and walked along the top of it, holding his arms and tail out just right to maintain his balance while he tried to kick dust and pebbles down on his littler cohort’s head.  This led to Barrel hunting around in the dark nooks and crannies and cracks in the cobblestones and wall for rocks or bits of bone to throw back at him.  Then Lock came to a Jack-o-Lantern blocking his way on top of the wall so he pushed it off, intending to hit Barrel - but it hit the pavement instead and cracked open, extinguishing the flickering candle inside as the pumpkin shell collapsed in on itself.  Jack sighed as the children giggled, but it wasn’t worth stopping to make them clean it up.  The rats would most likely eat much of the smashed pumpkin before morning anyway.

“Come along, you two.  We’re almost there.” said Jack as the boys started kicking the smashed pumpkin bits at one another.  They were getting pretty squirrelly, and that combined with their tiredness was a sure recipe for disaster and it was only a matter of time before one (or both) of them lost control of themselves and had some sort of meltdown out of sheer exhaustion.

“Why do we have to walk so fast?” complained Barrel in a rare moment of mouthing-off to Jack.

“Because he’s an old man who needs to sleep a lot!  So he has to go home and put on his adult-diaper and go to bed.” snickered Lock, and Barrel giggled.

Jack was unfazed.  As far as disrespect went this was fairly tame, so he just smiled a bit and said lightly, “That’s right, I’m an extremely old man who is going to get extremely grumpy if you don’t come along quickly.  And you wouldn’t like me when I’m grumpy.”  Lock and Barrel had to agree with him on that, so they followed along again but kept whispering and giggling together about how Jack was so old it was a miracle that he wasn’t just a pile of dust by now.

 

 

Shock, meanwhile, was back at the laboratory currently being tucked tightly into Sally’s rickety iron bed by the rag doll herself.  Since she was still in pretty rough shape after her close encounter with the bomb explosion despite the medical attention of Doctor Finkelstein, it had been decided that she should keep as motionless as possible, which meant spending at least one night at the lab.  Usually Shock hated to be separated from her lifelong companions, but they had been annoying her so badly when Jack finally led them out of the room that she was actually quite glad to have them out of her face for awhile.

“Stupid Lock and Barrel.  I hate them.” she huffed, still sore about them laughing at her embarrassing predicament.  Those rotten boys were so immature that they had probably laughed their heads off when the accident had occurred, which made her feel both angry and hurt.

As if she had read her mind, Sally said gently, “They were really worried about you, you know.”  She offered Shock a spoon full of pain-relieving potion, but the little witch turned up her nose and huffed again.

“Yeah right…” she grumbled.  

“It’s true.” Sally insisted, holding out the spoon of thick, greyish potion.  “They didn’t want to leave when you were unconscious and they stayed right by you on the operating table for as long as they could.  Now, please take this.  It will help you sleep.”

Shock looked suspiciously at Sally, but she really was in a lot of pain and sleep sounded wonderful.  Shock also thought that Sally seemed like such a wimp that she probably wasn’t even _capable_ of lying, so she decided to believe her when she said her cohorts had been worried.  On that soothing thought, she swallowed the spoon full of medicine and tried to get a bit more comfortable against the lumpy pillows beneath the ratty old blanket.  It felt weird to have Sally doting on her like this, but it wasn’t the worst thing, either… Sally, on the other hand, was enjoying herself immensely.  She’d never gotten to take care of a child like this before, and even though Shock was grumpy and rather disagreeable at the moment she was still more pleasant to dote on than Doctor Finkelstein.  It stirred a warm flicker of maternal tenderness in the rag doll’s sewn-in heart that she’d never experienced before, and it took all of her power not to go overboard and kiss the little witch on the forehead.  She didn’t know the trick-or-treaters well, but she knew them well enough to guess that such a gesture wouldn’t be welcome.  “Try and get some rest.” she said kindly, but Shock sneered:

“What else am I gonna do?”

Sally only smiled as she began setting up her own makeshift bed on the floor.  She wanted to be close by in case Shock needed anything during the night.  “You’re right, of course.  Goodnight.” she said, then she turned off the light and slipped under her tattered blankets.  She stayed awake until she heard Shock’s breathing become soft and even, and when she heard the little witch begin snoring quietly she drifted happily off to sleep herself.  While it was unfortunate that Shock was there because of her injuries, deep inside Sally was enjoying their little sleepover.

 

 

Jack was having considerably less fun than Sally, though he still couldn’t help but be entertained by Lock and Barrel despite feeling no small amount of concern at having them in his house.  It wasn’t that he didn’t like them - it was just that he didn’t trust them not to get into some sort of mischief and he could definitely think of better ways to spend his time than forcing them to clean up any damage they caused, or having to fix it himself.

“You’ll stay in the guest room tonight.” Jack said as he led them through the tall front doors and up the long, narrow, creaky staircase and the boys looked around in awe.  They had never been inside Skellington Manor before, and it was quite spooky and elegant and full of interesting things - interesting things that would be fun to break or steal.  After several floors he opened up a door and ushered them into a large, lushly furnished room.  It seemed to be larger than their entire treehouse, and against the far wall was an enormous bed.  “I’m sorry that you’ll have to share the bed, but I think there will be plenty of room for you, so please make yourselves comfortable,” Jack began, but before he could even finish the sentence Lock and Barrel ran towards the bed at top speed and clambered onto it to begin jumping as high as they could.  It was much springier than Lock’s battered old mattress, and was up on a frame that squeaked and creaked delightfully as they bounced rather than just sitting quietly on the floor like Lock’s.  The bedposts had intricately carved bats on the tops and the pillows were large enough that Barrel could have easily just used one for his entire bed.  It seemed that being the Pumpkin King definitely had it’s perks.

“Alright you two,” Jack couldn’t help but chuckle, because the sight of them leaping about on the gigantic bed while giggling nonstop was actually rather adorable.  “It’s time to settle down and go to sleep.  Do you need anything before I go?”

“Barrel needs one of your adult diapers ‘cus he wets the bed.” Lock said slyly, even though it was a lie.

Barrel furrowed his brow.  “No I don’t!” he shouted, then tried to push Lock off of the bed but failed.  Lock was about to shove him back, but Jack stepped up to the bed and put one bony hand on each of their shoulders to prevent it.

“That’s enough now, its time for bed.  Don’t make me ask you again.” he said a bit more sternly, and even though they didn’t want to, the boys settled down and wiggled under the covers as Jack pulled them back for them.  They didn’t want to risk Jack making a very scary face or roaring at them.

“Do we have to?” Lock tried one last time as Jack brought the covers up to tuck under the little devil’s chin.

“Yes, you do.” Jack answered, and Lock heaved a dramatic sigh.

“Do you think Shock’s okay?” asked Barrel as Jack moved to tuck him in as well.

“I’m sure she’s just fine, Sally and the Doctor will take good care of her.  First thing in the morning we’ll go back over to the laboratory and check on her, alright?” he said kindly, and Barrel nodded.  Secretly both of the boys hated to be separated from their eldest cohort, but on the other hand sleeping over at Jack’s house was rather exciting.  Once they were securely tucked into bed, Jack strode to the door and flipped off the light with a final goodnight.  He paused outside of the door, considering the heavy lock… he hated to do it, but he locked them in anyway.  It was his best hope for getting any sleep himself that night.

 

 

Shock slept like the dead that night thanks to the heavily sedating potion that Sally had given her, but Lock and Barrel were still too wound-up to sleep.  As soon as they could no longer detect Jack’s footsteps outside the door they scrambled back out of bed and Lock was about to turn on the lamp on the nightstand so they could continue to jump on the bed… but then he realized it would be more fun to keep the light off since he could see much better in the dark than Barrel could.  It made it likely that his younger cohort would bounce himself right off of the bed and that would be hilarious… but unfortunately there was a nightstand and lamp on Barrel’s side of the bed, too, and he switched it on.

“I bet I can jump higher than you!” challenged Lock, and Barrel did his best to prove him wrong.  After a few minutes jumping on the bed got boring, so Lock tried to think of a way to mix it up a bit.  “Let’s push the mattress halfway off and use it like a teeter-totter!” he suggested, but that turned out to be easier said than done because the mattress was quite heavy.  Eventually they managed it, and the resulting diagonal angle of the mattress against the bed frame created a new sort of experience.  It was too floppy to make a good teeter-totter, but they could maneuver it in sort of bouncing waves and they pretended that they were aboard a haunted ghost ship that was being ravaged by a terrible storm.

It was so much fun and they were so amped up and the rocking got more and more violent, then Lock shouted, “Oh no, you fell overboard!” and he pushed Barrel hard in the chest.  Barrel didn’t see it coming and went flying backwards off of the mattress and right into the nearby closet, forcing the sliding doors out of their tracks and against the back of the closet wall with an enormous crash.  Lock laughed raucously as Barrel tried struggle to his feet again.  “Ha ha, you drowned!” he taunted, still hopping from foot-to-foot on top of the undulating mattress, but Barrel only grinned because hitting the closet hadn’t really hurt - certainly not enough to make him want to stop playing.

“No I didn’t!  I’m a submarine and I’m gonna shoot my torpedo at you and sink your ship!” he taunted back, then picked up an empty shoe rack out of the closet and chucked it at Lock as hard as he could.  He missed and it hit the wall, leaving a dent and scraping the grayish paint and knocking off a framed painting of a hissing black cat which landed on the floor with a thud - fortunately it wasn’t framed with glass, for if it had been it would have shattered.

It didn’t dawn on either of the children what a racket they were making until suddenly the door was flung open to reveal Jack.  At first he looked concerned, but his expression quickly changed to annoyance when he saw that neither Lock nor Barrel were hurt but that the same could not be said for the room.

“What happened to the closet?” he asked sternly, and Lock immediately stopped jumping while Barrel just froze where he was standing.

“Barrel knocked the doors off because he’s a big dumb klutz and he fell off the bed.” said Lock.

“Nuh-uh, you pushed me!” Barrel protested, pointing accusingly at his older cohort.

“So what?  It was your fat butt that actually hit the doors, so technically you broke it!” said Lock.  It was indeed a technicality, but it was also true and Jack was always telling them to tell the truth so Lock thought that perhaps this would save him from punishment.  It was worth a try, at least.

Jack raised one brow ridge.  While Lock was incapable of most devilish powers, it seemed that he _did_ possess a certain amount of skill when it came to smooth-talking.  Devils were good at carefully crafting words to trap others into deals, but this trick wouldn’t work on Jack.  “Nice try, Lock, but if you pushed him then you are both responsible.” Jack said, but couldn’t help but smile a bit - he wasn’t sure if Lock would ever grow up, but if he did then he would probably make a good lawyer even if not a devil. Then he looked down at the painting laying face-down on the floor.  “What happened to that painting?”

“It just fell off the wall.” said Lock.

“All by itself.” added Barrel.

“We didn’t do it.” finished Lock.

Jack raised his brow even higher.  He supposed that was _possible_ considering how hard they were jumping on the bed, which may have bumped the wall enough to dislodge the painting, but he thought it was unlikely.  “Uh huh.  And why is the shoe rack out of the closet?”

“Um…” mumbled Barrel.

“We don’t know.” said Lock, and there was no way that wasn’t a lie so Jack said:

“So you’re telling me that it just flew over beside the bed by itself?”  He sounded extremely skeptical and increasingly stern, and Lock scrambled to think up more excuses and lies.

“Maybe a witch hexed it!” he said brightly, and Barrel nodded.

Jack looked around the room in an exaggerated manner, then put his hands on his hips.  “Shock is back at the laboratory and I don’t see any other witches in the room unless they are hiding under the bed.  So I would say that it being hexed is extremely unlikely.  Please tell the truth.”

“Shock can’t do magic anyway,” snickered Barrel, ignoring Jack’s request, and Lock laughed.

“Yeah, she’s a crappy witch and she can’t even make a bomb right!” he said gleefully, but shut up when Jack sharply snapped his fingers.

“I’m going to ask you one more time to tell me the truth.”  He loomed over them, his skull shadowed rather frighteningly in the lamplight, and now he looked on the verge of yelling at them so Barrel finally caved.

“I threw it.” he said quietly, then scrunched his eyes tightly closed as if he was expecting Jack to hit him and that was such a sorry sight that Jack softened a bit.

“Thank you for telling me the truth, Barrel.  Now, both of you please put the mattress back onto the bed and return the shoe rack where it belongs.  I’ll fix the closet.”  He picked up the painting and hung it back on the wall, and frowned a bit when he noticed the dent and scraped paint.  Oh well, that would be easy enough to patch… frankly he was surprised that they hadn’t caused more destruction in the fifteen minutes he’d been out of the room.  As the boys struggled to shove the mattress back onto it’s frame he said, “If it wasn’t the middle of the night I would put both of you in time-out.  But as it is, I expect you to go to sleep now - if you don’t settle down then I will have no choice but to put you in time-out in the morning and we won’t get to visit Shock.”  He felt rather mean threatening them with not seeing their friend, but he wasn’t sure what else would work on them.  Lock and Barrel didn’t know what ‘time-out’ meant… that wasn’t a punishment or term that the Boogie Man ever used, but they did understand what not getting to see Shock meant and they didn’t like that one bit.  Once Jack had fixed the closet doors he helped them get the mattress and blankets back onto the bed frame and tucked them in once again.

“Are you ready to sleep now?” he asked, not unkindly but in a tone that suggested no room for argument.

“I guess so…” Lock grumbled, but he didn’t want to risk Jack putting them in this mysterious ‘time-out’ in the morning and keeping them away from Shock so he settled down and tried to relax.  Barrel, however, was starting to feel very sleepy indeed and only yawned and nodded in response.

Jack switched off the nightstand lamps and then the main bedroom light.  “Goodnight then, you two.  I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Lock pouted even as Barrel began snoring softly beside him.  There was really no reason for Lock to be acting so churlishly, but his hyperness was wearing off and he was extremely exhausted by now as well and that tiredness was making him extra cranky and disagreeable.  Jack understood and ignored Lock’s rudeness - he was only six years old, after all - then locked the bedroom door and headed upstairs to his own room to hopefully finally get some sleep himself.

**…**   
**To be continued…**   
**…**


	29. The Time Bomb - epilogue

First thing in the morning, Jack quietly opened the guest bedroom door and poked his skull inside to check on the boys.He found them still completely passed out in that deep sort of sleep that only children could seem to achieve, Lock on his stomach with one leg hanging out from under the covers and drooling a little bit onto the pillow, and Barrel on his back snoring so loudly that Jack was surprised he hadn’t woken up his cohort - or himself, for that matter.They were up quite late the night before, so Jack figured he would let them sleep in a little longer - plus he wasn’t exactly eager to have them awake and potentially causing mischief again anytime soon - so he crept quietly back out of the room and down to the kitchen to fix himself some tea.He kept one ear tuned for any sounds that his little houseguests had awoken, and before too long he heard a _‘thud’_ from upstairs.He scaled the staircase quickly and unlocked the door, and when he opened it up both trick-or-treaters and a chair went careening out of the room to land in a pile in the hallway with a shout and an _‘oof!’_

“Hey!” snarled Lock, rubbing his head with one hand while attempting to disentangle himself from the spindly legs of the chair.He was also halfway sitting on Barrel’s head, but he didn’t seem to care much about that until Barrel tried to shove him off.

It took Jack only a moment to surmise what had happened: apparently they had been using the chair as a battering ram in an effort to escape from the locked room.“Good morning, you two.” he said cheerfully, unable to help being a bit amused at their ingenuity and determination.

“What’s the big idea, locking us in like that?” Lock snarled again, and Barrel frowned and nodded.Lock kicked the chair away and sneered, “I thought you said we were your ‘guests’, not your prisoners!”

“Yeah!” piped up Barrel, though he wasn’t quite as irritated as Lock was.Shock and Lock were constantly shoving and locking him into closets and trunks so he was pretty used to small, dark spaces - and at least here he wasn’t locked in with a bunch of scorpions or something equally unpleasant.

“I think considering what you’ve just been doing to the chair and door I was well within my rights to confine you to this room - which you have also managed to cause some damage to in a relatively limited amount of time.” Jack said coolly.

“Yeah, well what about our rights not to be shut in your stupid room!?” shouted Lock.Shock and Barrel had only managed to wrestle him into the broom closet one time, but they had kept him in there for nearly a whole day as a trick and ever since then he wasn’t fond of having his movement restricted in any way whatsoever, no matter how large the room may be.

“I think you might be overreacting a bit, Lock.” Jack said lightly, and the little devil stood up and angrily kicked the chair again for good measure.If Jack wanted to see an ‘overreaction’, Lock could think of a lot better ways to do it - like lighting the bed on fire, for instance.

Jack ignored this outburst.It wasn’t like Lock’s foot could do much damage to the wrought-iron chair and lecturing him on respecting other people’s property was generally pointless, so instead Jack said, “Do you want to go see how Shock is doing?”

“Yes!” said Barrel as he also got to his stumpy little feet.

“Yeah, do you think we wanna stick around here in prison with _you_ all day?” muttered Lock, and he stomped down the hallway and staircase, leaving Barrel and Jack to follow along behind him.

“What’s for breakfast?” asked Barrel as they made their way downstairs.He kind of hated to ask, because asking Jack for anything was strictly against Boogie Boy rules, but his tummy was growling and his hunger outweighed his pride in that moment.

“I’m afraid I don’t have much to eat here,” said Jack.He usually ate out in town since he wasn’t much of a cook and was usually too busy to make meals for just himself.“But I’m certain that Sally will have something waiting for us.”He felt a twinge of guilt at continually showing up and expecting Sally to feed him and the trick-or-treaters, but she seemed to enjoy it and was always brushing aside his apologies whenever he tried to express his gratitude.Also, spending time with her was a joy and selfishly he just really enjoyed eating whatever she made.Sally was an excellent chef, in his opinion.

…

Sally did indeed have a very impressive breakfast all set out and ready for them, and in the time it took for them to walk from Skellington Manor to the laboratory Lock was more hungry than he was annoyed.He and Barrel both ran right into the kitchen without a word to Sally, completely forgetting Shock for the moment at the scent and sight of all that delicious food.Both boys stood up on their chairs to reach, and Barrel stuck his hand directly into a basket of grayish-colored popovers and had two stuffed in his mouth before Sally and Jack had even made it into the kitchen.

“Barrel, use a plate, please.” said Jack, but Barrel grabbed two more popovers and crammed them into his mouth before obeying.After all four of them had loaded up their plates - as well as a fifth one for Shock - they headed upstairs to see the little invalid witch.They found her still in Sally’s bed, propped up against the pillow a bit and still wearing a neck brace and numerous bandages wrapped around her head with extra padding at the back.

“Nice necklace, loser.” snickered Lock, and Barrel giggled.

Shock glared at him.“Nice face, ugly.” she snapped.

“Are you still pooping blood?” giggled Barrel, and Lock guffawed out loud.He had forgotten about that hilarious consequence of Shock standing too close to an explosion.

“NO.SHUT UP.” Shock seethed through gritted teeth.She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so embarrassed, and she was still determined to hit both of her cohorts in their guts so hard that they pooped blood, too.

“Let’s not talk about pooping while we’re eating, please.” sighed Jack, but the children ignored him.

“How are you feeling, blood-butt?” Lock snickered as he unwisely put his plate on the bed and began climbing onto it.His plan had been to sit next to her to eat his breakfast, but Shock was having none of it and even though it hurt a bit she managed to kick his plate right off of the bed and onto the floor before he even made it halfway up.

“HEY!” he yelled as his scrambled eggs landed on the floor with a plop.

“I’m feeling pretty good now.” Shock said slyly.While she wished she was well enough to throttle him, kicking his breakfast onto the floor was the next best thing.

Lock shot her his deadliest glare, and if she hadn’t already been so hurt he would have tackled her and tried to beat her up - but besides that, Jack probably would have stopped him anyway so it was pointless to try.So instead he slid back down onto the floor, picked up his food and put it back on his plate, and then scooted over to sit next to Barrel, who was already sitting down on the floor and happily wolfing down his food.

“Hey Barrel, I’ll give you all my candy when we get home if you trade me your breakfast.” Lock lied.He didn’t want to bother going to get new food and he knew Barrel was so gullible that he would probably actually believe him… and he was right.Barrel thought that a large bag of candy in exchange for only slightly-imperfect food was a pretty good deal, so he switched plates with Lock and continued eating without question.Lock suppressed his wicked grin as he dug into Barrel’s plate full of pristine popovers and eggs, and while Jack very much suspected the little devil wasn’t being truthful there was really no reason for him to intervene in this case.However, there was a different case that very much required his intervention.

“Now then, I think we’ve put off an important discussion for long enough.” Jack said once he’d put down his fork.

“What, about how dumb Shock is for blowing herself up?” Lock snickered.Even though he was relieved that it seemed Shock would make a full recovery, that wouldn’t stop him from making fun of her for this for the rest of their existence.

“Or about how dumb Lock is all the time?” Shock said snottily.The wait she was going to have to suffer through before she was healed enough to kick him in the crotch was going to be unbearable.

“Or about how dumb Lock and Shock both are?” giggled Barrel, and Lock shoved him roughly, nearly causing him to drop his plate and mess up his food for a second time.

“No,” Jack said sternly enough to get the trio’s attention.“About the Mayor’s toilet.Did you really expect that you could pull off a prank like that without facing consequences, even if Shock _hadn’t_ been injured?”

“Yes, because you wouldn’t have been able to prove it was us.” said Shock, sounding halfway sweet and halfway defiant.

“Yeah, you always say ‘innocent until proven guilty’, or is that just a lie?You’re always telling us not to lie, so how come you get to do it?” Lock added, and Barrel nodded but didn’t say anything because his mouth was too full.

Jack looked even more stern.“In this case yes, I would assume that you were guilty simply because I know for a fact that no one else in Halloween Town would do such a thing.I’ve told you a thousand times: pulling pranks is part of your job and I understand that.But hiding bombs in peoples homes isn’t just a prank - it is very dangerous.”

Lock rolled his eyes, though he could tell by Jack’s tone that he was edging into dangerous territory.“It’s no big deal, Shock got blown up and she’s fine.” he said anyway.He wasn’t going to stop mouthing off until the last possible second.

“Yeah, so the Mayor would have been even more fine because his big puffy butt would have protected him.” added Shock, and all three children laughed until Jack made a low, very frightening sort of growling noise.They all shut up at that, but Sally felt her stomach flutter a bit because she couldn’t help but admire how effortlessly terrifying Jack could be.

“As soon as Shock is healed enough - which I expect won’t take very long considering Dr. Finkelstein’s skills - I expect you all to apologize to the Mayor.And then you will do whatever work he tells you to do in order to fix the mess that your bomb created.”

“It was Shock’s idea!” whined Barrel, and his eldest cohort glared at him.

“You went along with it, crybaby!And it’s not my fault you don’t have any ideas in your dumb, empty head!” she snapped.

“I’m not a crybaby.” Barrel pouted.He was just as relieved as Lock that Shock seemed to be okay, but that didn’t stop him from being annoyed with her for calling him a dumb crybaby.Though he supposed that was just more proof that she would be back to her normal, mean self very soon.

“But you _are_ dumb.” snickered Lock, and Jack snapped his fingers sharply to get their attention again.

“You heard what I said.All three of you are to apologize and then work to make it right.Understand?”He sounded so stern now that the children nodded, but Jack knew he was going to have to be physically present to make them do such a thing - there was no way they would do it voluntarily. 

“Would any of you like some more food?” Sally said kindly, but everyone had taken so much to start with that they were all quite full.She produced a pack of playing cards from her pocket and handed it to Barrel.“Here you are, if you’d like to all play some games together for awhile.”She then tried to collect everyone’s plates - including Jack’s - but he insisted on helping her carry the dishes back to the kitchen - and he fully intended on helping her wash them this time, too, no matter how much she protested.

“I’ll be right back.Try to behave yourselves for ten minutes.” he said before locking the door behind him, and the children rolled their eyes as Lock and Barrel climbed up onto the bed with Shock.

“So I’ve been thinking while I’m stuck laying around doing nothing,” Shock began, and Lock was about to make a crack about how it was a miracle she could think after knocking her head against a wall, but before he could say anything she continued: “And I think I know what I did wrong with the bomb.”

A wicked smile spread across Lock’s face, matching her own.“So we’re gonna try again.” he said, and Shock tried to nod but it was difficult while wearing a neck brace.

“Do you think he’s got another toilet?” Barrel grinned.

“If he does, he won’t for long.” snickered Shock as she began dealing out a game of crazy eights.The trick-or-treaters all laughed, and they all three hoped that Shock wouldn’t be laid up for too long - there were far too many pranks that needed playing.


	30. The Frothing Fountain

“Check this out!” grinned Lock one fine late-spring day, striding into the treehouse living room and holding up an extremely large bottle of dish soap to show to his cohorts.

“What’s so great about soap?” asked Barrel as he looked up from the puzzle that Sandy Claws had given him last Christmas.It featured a bunch of fluffy kittens, which was totally stupid, but Barrel had improved it considerably by using a red marker to make the kittens look all bloody.

“I can’t believe you even know what soap is, stinky.” smirked Shock, poking another pin into her homemade voodoo doll.It was made out of a scrap of Oogie Boogie’s burlap that they had found in his lair after Jack had executed him, and even though he was dead and gone now Shock still hoped that maybe he could still feel the sharp pins somehow.

Lock was only slightly deflated by Shock’s insult and both of his cohorts’s lack of enthusiasm.“We’re not gonna _wash_ with it, dummies.This soap is for dishes, plus it smells like flowers.”Few things smelled as bad to the children as flowers.

“Who cares what kind it is?As long as it makes you not smell like butt anymore, that works for me.” Shock said meanly, and Barrel giggled.

Lock frowned.“I don’t smell like butt, _you_ smell like butt!And _he_ smells like an even bigger butt!”He jabbed his finger at Barrel, but Barrel couldn’t care less.He was still just laughing about his cohorts saying the word ‘butt’ so many times in a row.

“Okay whatever, stinky, what’s the soap for then?” said Shock, putting down her thoroughly pin-stuck doll, and the wicked grin was back on Lock’s face.

“We’re gonna put it in the fountain.”

“Why?” asked Barrel, looking completely confused.Why would they want to wash dishes in the fountain?It made no sense and sometimes he wondered why Lock was in charge of things - at least when Shock wasn’t fighting him for the privilege.

But Shock knew immediately what Lock had in mind and what dumping an entire bottle of dish soap into the fountain would result in.She grinned wickedly back at him and stood up, eager to pull this prank as soon as possible.“C’mon, midget, let’s go!” she said, then grabbed Barrel’s ear and starting pulling to encourage him to get up off of the floor.

“OW!” he whined as he hurriedly got to his feet and tried to bat her hand away.She let go but gave him a smack on the back of his head before she picked up an empty trick-or-treating bag to hide the soap with and joined Lock in the cage elevator.Barrel grabbed a lollipop out of a different nearby candy bag to make himself feel better before following along after her as well.

 

The town square was actually bustling with much more activity than usual and it only took a second for Shock to realize why - and when she did, she was incredibly impressed by Lock’s forethought… assuming that he’d chosen this particular date with that in mind rather than just randomly.Barrel, however, couldn’t think of why so many townspeople were out and about, conversing and eating and drinking from all the stands and tables set up around the square.

“Why is it so busy?” he asked his older cohorts while eyeing an extremely delicious-looking hog that was being roasted on a spit over a crackling flame.Now if only the monster tending to it would turn it’s back for a moment…

“Because it’s halfway to Halloween, moron!” Shock said, then she turned to Lock.“Did you pick that on purpose?”

The truth was that he had not, but Lock wasn’t going to let her know that.“Of course I did!This way everybody gets their stuff wrecked!” he said in a very smug tone of voice.It really was a fortunate coincidence.Every year around this time, the citizens of Halloween Town took a quick break in their planning activities to celebrate with food, drink and music to share their progress and ideas with one another, and since the weather was generally quite dreary and pleasant this time of year the celebration was usually held outdoors in the town square.

A wide grin spread across Barrel’s face.Again, he wasn’t sure how a bunch of dish soap in the fountain would wreck anybody’s stuff, but he decided to trust his elders.Shock smirked wickedly and all three of them huddled together to discuss their plan of attack.“Okay, we need to cause a distraction so one of us can pour the soap in without anyone seeing us.”She turned to Lock, “Got anything that can blow up?”

He smiled evilly and whispered, “I’ve got some flash powder.”He pulled the very tip of a little baggie out of his pocket to show her.

“Good.” she whispered back, then pulled her knife out of her own pocket and gave it to Barrel.“You go cut the rope holding up that tent-thing.”She pointed to a very large, tattered black-and-grey open circus canopy, under which were many tables full of food and various Halloween-related tools - not to mention many townspeople.“Do it one after the other to draw out the distractions.”

“What are you gonna do?” whispered Barrel, running his fingertips along the knife blade to check how sharp it was.Last time he’d had to use a knife in the course of pulling a prank it had been too dull and he’d gotten caught because it took too long.

“She’s gonna dump the soap in the fountain, stupid!” said Lock.While he kind of wished he could do it himself, she was taller than him and could reach over the fountain wall the easiest, so it just made more sense.He was willing to sacrifice being the one to pour in the soap for the sake of the overall prank.

“Alright, everybody got it?” said Shock, picking up the candy bag full of soap.

“Got it!” her cohorts whispered together, and they all three bumped their little fists and then spread out in different directions to play their parts.

 

They walked boldly out into the square, trying to make it look like today was one of the rare days that they weren’t planning to pull any tricks.Sometimes the best way to hide was right out in the open rather than sneaking around.Several townspeople saw them and were immediately on alert, but the trio continued to act nonchalant.Lock strolled right up to the barbecue pit where Cydny the cyclops and the Man Under the Stairs were tending the roasting hog.“Hi!” Lock chirped brightly, and both monsters glared at him suspiciously.

“What do you want?” asked Cydny, his voice clearly wavering a bit despite trying to sound tough.He was a somewhat nervous sort of monster, and the trick-or-treaters made him even more so.

“I want some pork, please.” said Lock in a very charming voice, and anyone who didn’t know him might believe he was actually well-behaved… but the monsters weren’t fooled for a second.

“Oh really?” asked the Man Under the Stairs.He sounded extremely skeptical.

“Yes, please.” Lock said again, grinning innocently even as he fingered the bag of flash powder hidden in his pocket.“I’m really hungry, and that looks really good.It’s free today, isn’t it?”

Cydny raised his one brow suspiciously.“Yes, it’s free…”

“Oh good.” said Lock, and now he tried his best to act like a poor, pathetic child.“Me and Shock and Barrel don’t ever have any money, so sometimes we’re just so hungry…”He let his lip quiver a bit and looked up at the monsters with big, sorrowful eyes, and he personally thought he was giving quite an excellent performance.

The monsters exchanged quick glances with one another.Technically the little devil was asking politely, and maybe - just _maybe_ \- he was truly hungry enough that he would just take his food and leave if they gave him some.Jack was always telling the townspeople to give the trick-or-treaters a little more leeway when it came to ‘doing their jobs’, as he put it… and since Lock was technically being well-behaved right at this second the monsters didn’t think that Jack would approve of them turning him away when he hadn’t even done anything wrong yet.

“Alright, fine.” decided Cydny, and he picked up a paper plate and plopped a ladle full of cold worm-and-noodle salad onto it while the Man Under the Stairs tore a piece of pork off of the spit-roasting hog.“Here.” said Cydny, shoving the plate into the little devil’s hands.

“Thanks, have a terrible day!” Lock said brightly as he turned around and headed off.

“You too.” Cydny called after him… it looked like Lock was really leaving and he breathed a sigh of relief that he’d gotten through an encounter with an ex-Boogie Boy without anything bad happening.That was exactly what Lock was counting on, however, and now that the two monsters seemed to have let their guard down he wandered over to a nearby bench and sat down to eat his food while he searched the square to see where his cohorts were at.

 

Shock had made her way over to the fountain while ignoring all of the suspicious looks she was getting from the townspeople.When she arrived she found Ludmilla in the water, resting her scaly elbows against the fountain wall and drinking some sort of bubbling green drink in a chipped champagne glass.“Hi, what’s that?” Shock asked sweetly as she swung her candy bag up to rest on the wall of the fountain and climbed up after it to sit on the edge.

The lagoon monster frowned at her.“Something you’re too young to drink.”

“I’m like, two-hundred years old!” the little witch protested.

Ludmilla raised a brow.“No, you’re actually about ten.”While it was technically true that Shock and her cohorts had been in Halloween Town for several centuries, they had stopped growing in mid-childhood due to their roles as trick-or-treaters.Nobody knew if they would ever get any older, but the children were quite content with staying children forever and ever.Surely being a grown up had to be intensely boring.

“I’m actually seven.” Shock corrected her.

“Exactly.Way too young.”Ludmilla took a deep swig of the drink.Conversing with any of the ex-Boogie Boys was not her idea of a good time.

“I’ll trade you some candy for a sip of your drink.” offered Shock, even though she didn’t have any candy with her.But she knew Ludmilla would refuse - the goal was just to annoy her enough that she would leave the fountain.

Ludmilla snorted into her glass.“I don’t think so.”

Shock changed subjects.“What’s it like to live in the water half of the time?Don’t you get all pruney?”

Ludmilla frowned even more.“No.”

“Barrel falls asleep in the bathtub sometimes and then he gets so wrinkled that he looks like a shrunken head when he finally gets out.He’s so dumb!” Shock said, and Ludmilla looked increasingly annoyed.That was exactly her plan, so Shock continued: “Sometimes I wish I was a mer-creature or something like that, then I could drown Lock and Barrel in the lake.Have you ever drowned anyone?”

“None of your business.” Ludmilla said darkly, chugging the last remains of her drink.

“But I think I’m actually glad I’m a witch,” Shock prattled on, “I’m just glad I’m not a devil like Lock, he’s stupid and he smells like butt.”

Ludmilla rolled her eyes.She knew for a fact that devils didn’t smell like anything other than smoke and sulfur - both of which were actually quite pleasant Halloweeny smells - but who knew how attentive the children were to their personal hygiene?“If you say so.” she grumbled, looking down into her now-empty glass.That simply wouldn’t do.

“What happens if you’re _out_ of the water too long? _Then_ do you get all pruney?” Shock asked in her most innocent, curious voice.

But Ludmilla had had enough.“I never stay out of the water too long.In fact, I think I’ve been _in_ the water too long right now.”

Shock smiled to herself as the lagoon creature pulled herself out of the water and over the side of the fountain before slithering over in the direction of the drinks.“Bye!” the little witch called cheerfully, and Ludmilla waved one webbed hand dismissively behind her.Shock untied the bag and reached in to unscrew the cap of the dish soap bottle, then glanced around the square to check on her cohorts.

 

Barrel had wandered over to the great big canopy without drawing too much attention to himself, then he sat on the ground next to one of the outside corners and pulled out Shock’s knife to start drawing little symbols in the dirt with it’s tip.The canopy was held in place with thick tie-down ropes and Barrel snuck glances out of the corners of his eye, waiting for a moment when no one was watching him.Just when he thought he had a clear opening, suddenly the tall, spindly legs and dainty, pointed black shoes of Jack Skellington were standing right in front of him and the little ghoul craned his neck up to look into the eye sockets of the Pumpkin King.

“Good afternoon, Barrel.” Jack said politely.

“Hi Jack!” Barrel said innocently.

“And what are you doing this fine day?”

“Just drawing some pictures, Jack.See?”Barrel pointed to his random scribbling as if it were the best thing he’d ever drawn and Jack leaned down a bit to look.Jack couldn’t tell what exactly he was supposed to be looking at, but he didn’t want to discourage the little ghoul in his artistic endeavors.

“Excellent!You’re quite a talent, Barrel.”Barrel grinned up at him - he really was quite cute, Jack thought.“Have you tried any of the food?It’s free today, you know.” Jack said kindly.

“No, I’m not hungry yet.”

If Jack hadn’t been suspicious before, he definitely was now.Since when was Barrel ever not hungry?But just as he opened his mouth to question this, Barrel held up his chewed-on lollipop stick.“I just ate this whole thing.” he said, and while that was true, he certainly could have eaten more.Especially that pork that he saw Lock chowing down on.Barrel wished he’d gotten that particular distraction duty.

“Alright, well you behave yourself and have a terrible day!” Jack said, still feeling a little suspicious… but Barrel wasn’t doing anything wrong so he wasn’t about to start treating him like a criminal for no reason.

“You too, Jack!” Barrel said happily as he waved his knife at Jack’s retreating form, then he glanced around his surroundings again.It seemed that Jack speaking with him and then leaving him alone had convinced the nearby townspeople that Barrel wasn’t up to any mischief and it felt like now was the time for him to make his move.He caught Shock’s eye across the square and she nodded, then she turned to Lock and the two of them made eye contact as well.Then Lock looked over to Barrel and nodded once, and Barrel immediately began sawing through the nearest canopy tie-down, giggling nonstop under his breath.Fortunately the knife was nice and sharp today, and within seconds the rope was severed and snapped violently upwards… but it wasn’t enough to take down the tent so Barrel scurried over to the tie-down rope kitty-corner to where he was and sawed through that as well.Then the entire canopy collapsed in on itself and everyone beneath it began shouting in confusion as Barrel ran as far away from it as he could get.Many of the other townspeople hurried over to help with the canopy and Barrel saw Shock begin to pour the soap into the fountain, still concealed within the candy bag.Lock crammed the last piece of pork into his mouth and hopped down off of the bench, and as soon as he saw the white, foamy suds begin to bubble up over the wall of the fountain he pulled the baggie of flash powder out of his pocket and flung it into the flames of the barbecue pit.The powder ignited with a series of WHOOSHES, and the fire from the pit flared up and began sparking violently as Lock ran away as fast as he could, trying hard not to laugh and risk drawing attention to himself rather than the pyrotechnics display he’d just ignited.Any townsperson who hadn’t gone to help with the canopy were startled by the barbecue fire instead, and the chaos gave Shock just enough time to finish pouring in the last of the soap without being seen, then she dropped the entire bottle right into the water.She finished just in time for other reasons besides getting caught: the vigorous churning of the fountain water was causing suds to form very, very quickly, and Shock leapt off of the side of the wall mere seconds before the suds would have touched her dress.She wrinkled her nose at the light, floral scent and she grabbed their candy bag before it got contaminated as well, but left the soap bottle floating in the fountain.Then she ran as fast as she could, her boots clacking against the cobblestones as the great cloud of suds overflowed from the fountain and spread across the town square like an alien blob, consuming everything in its path.

 

Barrel thought it was a little bit tragic to see that delicious-looking hog get ruined by the flashes and sparks, but sometimes sacrifices had to be made in the pursuit of pranks and he was quickly distracted by the absolutely enormous quantity of foamy suds that were bubbling high into the air, completely engulfing the carved dragon of the fountain and advancing across the cobblestones in every direction.Soon the mounds of foam were taller than himself, and then finally they became taller than the top of Shock’s hat… and it still wasn’t slowing down.Lock’s eyes and teeth gleamed as he grinned in utterly devious delight - the prank was working even better than he’d hoped, and before long the sickly-sweet-smelling suds had completely engulfed the bench he’d been sitting on only moments ago and was steadily creeping towards the barbecue pit.Shock rubbed her gloved hands together and cackled as the sudsy monster they’d created crawled up the town hall steps, and all three children laughed as they saw the fat little Mayor rushing through it to try and shut the town hall doors before the soap could get into the building.The Mayor shrieked in dismay as the foamy suds surrounded him, and the children laughed even more wildly when he was swallowed up by it until only his hat was visible.They gleefully watched the chaos for several more minutes, then began taking bets on how far they thought the foam would spread.

“What if it makes it all the way back to our treehouse?!” asked Barrel.

“That’s way too far, stupid!” said Shock, thwapping him with the candy bag.

“And even if it did, it would all fall into the pit before it got into our house.” added Lock.“I bet it’ll make it over to the pumpkin patch!”

“Which one?” asked Barrel, trying to straighten out his hair where Shock had messed it up with the bag.

“The closest one, bat-brain, which do you think?” Shock sneered.

Barrel thought about sticking his tongue out at her, but then he saw Lock’s yellow eyes go wide and Barrel looked where Lock was looking - and saw that Jack had honed in on the three of them from across the square.Apparently the Pumpkin King really _wasn’t_ afraid of anything, because he was standing in the disgusting flowery suds up to his waist as if it wasn’t even there.Jack gave the trick-or-treaters a stern look, and all three of them knew it was time to beat it if they hoped to avoid punishment.

“Time to go, losers!” said Shock, thwapping both Lock and Barrel with the candy bag before she took off towards the gate that led out of town and back towards their treehouse.Maybe if they could find their telescope they could still watch the chaos from the very top of the crow’s nest on their roof.Lock and Barrel followed her, but Lock took just enough time to look behind him and wave to Jack.

“Have a terrible day!” he called out naughtily, and his cohorts both laughed raucously as they fled through the gates.It was always hilarious seeing Jack mad - as long as he wasn’t too close to them - but they didn’t know that Jack actually wasn’t all that mad about this particular prank.Sure, it was messy and stinky and was definitely going to be annoying to clean up, but nobody had gotten hurt and the amount of property damaged caused was quite minimal.Jack actually thought it was a bit clever, and he wondered where they’d come up with such a trick and where they’d gotten their little hands on that kind of soap - nobody in Halloween Town used flowery soap, that was for sure, so they must have swiped it from the Human World.While Jack acknowledged to himself that having them kidnap Sandy Claws under his orders had been a bad thing to do, there were definitely good reasons why he had chosen the three of them for the task.He shook his skull and chuckled a little, then began wading towards the town hall to rescue the Mayor and begin formulating their clean-up strategy… as well as deciding if this was a prank that required punishing three naughty children or rather congratulating the three finest trick-or-treaters the worlds had ever known.


	31. The Best Laid Plans

Shock was bored.  She had many wide and varied interests so it didn’t happen often, but it did happen from time to time… and now was one of those times.  She sat on the ratty old sofa in the main room of their treehouse, staring at the ceiling and trying to think of something to do.  Barrel was sitting on the floor, drawing and humming a very off-key little song to himself, and Shock had no idea where Lock had wandered off to.  If he’d been there she would have picked a fight with him to liven things up, because fighting with Barrel wasn’t nearly as entertaining - it was mostly just pathetic, in her opinion.  

Then it came to her: a way to pull a good prank on the boys and have a good laugh, two of her favorite things.A wicked grin spread across her face as she hopped off of the sofa and headed for her room.Barrel didn’t even look up as she passed him, too focused on getting the drool-dripping fangs of the monster he was drawing just right.Shock went straight to the bookshelf beside her bed, a cobbled-together thing made of cinder blocks and rough slabs of wood, and ran her finger along the tops of each book until she came to the one she wanted.She shooed away the cockroach that was snoozing atop it and pulled it out: a recipe book full of nasty poisons that ran from relatively benign to downright deadly.Oogie Boogie had given it to her not long before Jack had destroyed him, and that was so recently that she hadn’t yet had the chance to really try out any of the recipes.She didn’t want to _kill_ her cohorts, but there had to be _something_ in here that would do something to them just awful enough to be hilarious.She sat down on her inner-tube bed and opened it up, skimming the contents for one that would do the trick - there was one that would melt the eyeballs right out of skulls, which sounded awesome but was definitely too extreme to do to her friends.Others would stop hearts or cause fatal hemorrhaging, and she kept flipping until she got to the recipes that were more annoying than deadly.One would cause toenails and hair to fall out, which sounded potentially promising… but they’d already all three cut one another’s hair off for a prank some time ago so she wanted to try something new.Finally she found one that sounded perfect: _‘explosive’_ diarrhea wasn’t a term she’d yet heard, but it was pretty clear what it meant and she giggled evilly.She couldn’t think of many things that sounded funnier than that, and it would be extra funny because they only had one toilet, and Lock and Barrel fighting over it while trying not to crap their pants would be hilarious.She took her book with her to the kitchen, opened up the pantry, and got to work.

Before too long she had a small cauldron simmering on the stove and she kept her eyes on the clock as she stirred the thick, purplish liquid for the last few minutes.Once the required seven minutes were up, she poured the last ingredient in and was caught completely off-guard when the potion practically erupted right out of the cauldron - it seemed that diarrhea wasn’t the only thing explosive about this particular recipe.She closed her mouth and eyes in time, but it still splatted all over her face and her dress and she grunted in surprise and dismay before groping around blindly for the dishrag she knew was nearby. 

“Rats!” she hissed under her breath once she’d wiped her face clean and saw that a some of the potion had plopped onto the open page, and she hurried to wipe it off with the rag before it ruined the book too badly.It left a purplish stain, but the recipe was still readable so it wasn’t too big a deal - she just hated being messy.She took the cauldron off of the stove, poured the liquid into a bottle and put it in the icebox - she would stir it into Lock and Barrel’s soup that night, and then the fun would begin.

She had just barely cleaned up the mess when Lock came strolling into the kitchen.“Where’ve you been all day, stupid?” she asked as she snapped her book closed.

“None of your business, nosey.” he answered, heading for the icebox and pouring himself a glass of pumpkin juice.Then he spotted the recently-used cauldron sitting upside down on the dishrag to dry.“What are you cooking?”

“None of _your_ business, bat brain.” Shock answered, and Lock stuck his tongue out at her.Then he noticed the purple stain all down the front of her dress.

“What happened to you?Are you trying to take a bath in your cauldron or something?You’re way too fat to fit, try using the bathtub.”He smirked at her but she merely squinted threateningly at him before turning up her nose and walking out of the kitchen with as much dignity as she could muster.

“For your information, dummy, I was just about to go take a bath.And remind me never to cook anything for your stupid butt ever again!” she hollered back at him.Poisoning his soup was going to be oh-so-much fun, and she wished it was dinnertime now.

…

Barrel came into the kitchen as Lock was finishing up his second cup of juice.  The sound of the icebox opening and closing had made the little ghoul hungry for a snack, and he opened up the icebox and considered his options.  There was a bottle in there that he didn’t recognize, so he pulled it off the shelf to investigate and when he opened the cork and sniffed it he instantly sensed that something was wrong.

“What is this?” he asked his middle cohort.

“How should I know?Shock made it.” Lock shrugged, tossing his empty cup into the sink and scattering a few beetles that were nibbling the bits of old food stuck in the drain trap.

Barrel looked back into the bottle and sniffed it again.It was subtle, but something definitely smelled suspicious.“It smells weird.” he said, and that immediately got Lock’s attention.It was a long time ago, but the last time Barrel had said Shock’s cooking smelled weird Lock had gotten sicker than he’d ever been before, so he decided to trust Barrel’s instincts now.He grabbed the bottle out of Barrel’s hands and looked in, then sniffed it himself.He couldn’t smell anything at all, which he thought was weird in and of itself.How could a food not have any smell?

“I don’t smell anything.” he said, deciding right then and there that he wasn’t about to let one single drop of this stuff pass his lips.His mind was going a mile a minute trying to calculate what this strange substance might be, and the only thing he could think of was that Shock was planning a trick on him or Barrel - or both of them.

“I’m telling you, something’s weird about it.” insisted Barrel, and Lock nodded in agreement.

“I bet that rotten witch is trying to mess with us…” he murmured under his breath, scanning around the room for clues and trying to think of the best course of action.Unfortunately Shock had cleaned up well and Lock didn’t know enough about cooking - nor did he pay enough attention to their food stocks - to figure out what was missing from their pantry and what it might mean.Then he remembered the book she’d been holding and that she’d quickly closed once he’d entered the room… it had to be a recipe book, and perhaps finding out what that recipe was would reveal whatever plot she was cooking up, so to speak.

“What are we gonna do?” asked Barrel, but Lock was already shoving him out the kitchen doorway.

“We gotta go search all her books while she’s still in the bathtub and see if we can figure out what that stuff is.” whispered Lock, and Barrel nodded, glad that Lock had a plan.They snuck past the bathroom and into Shock’s bedroom, and went right to her bookshelf.She had entirely too many books and Lock furrowed his brow in frustration.“She’s such a nerd, who needs this many books?!” he whispered to his littlest cohort, but Barrel was sniffing the air like a bloodhound.That scent in the bottle was quite distinct, and even though it was subtle he could smell just the slightest hints of it now.Lock watched him in half confusion and half disdain for a moment, then realized what he was up to as Barrel started sniffing the books on the shelf.“Can you smell it in here?Can you tell which book it came from?” Lock asked eagerly.While he was proud of his own excellent eyesight, he had to admit that Barrel’s keen nose was a pretty cool attribute - and in this case at least, a very useful one.He started reading the titles and any book that sounded like it might have anything to do with food he pulled off of the shelf to have Barrel sniff it.Finally they found one called _‘Draughts for Death, Disease and Discomfort’_ , and Barrel hardly needed to sniff it at all to recognize that this was the one.

“This one.” he said, and Lock wanted to smile because they’d found it and frown because while he didn’t know what a _‘draught’_ was, he certainly knew what death, disease and discomfort meant.Shock was definitely trying to mess with them.He flipped through the pages, wondering which one was sitting in their icebox and waiting to be unleashed by their eldest cohort when he came to a page that was stained the same purplish color that she’d had spilled all down her dress.Bingo.For the first time in awhile he was glad that he’d taken the time to learn how to read the previous year, and while some of the words were still too tricky, he was able to figure out the most important word at the top of that stained page.

“What is it?” asked Barrel, peeking over Lock’s arm and trying to read for himself.

“She thinks she’s gonna make us crap our pants.” Lock said stonily, remembering all too well what ‘explosive diarrhea’ felt like that one time he’d gotten it all those years ago.So, Shock thought she was going to force him to repeat that experience, did she?Well, she had another thing coming.

“I’ve got a plan.” he murmured, and Barrel was relieved because crapping his pants was pretty much the last thing he wanted to do - he only had one pair, after all.

…

“Hey Shock, wanna go up on the roof with me and see if we can hit any bats?I upgraded our slingshots.” Lock said once Shock emerged from the bathroom.

“Not really, it looks cold and gross outside.” Shock replied, and she wasn’t wrong - it was a rather cool and drizzly sort of day and while she certainly didn’t mind the bleakness, the temperature was a different story.

“Aw, c’mon you wimp.It’s not _that_ cold out, you’re just making up excuses ‘cus you know I’m gonna hit way more bats than you.” Lock said slyly, hoping that she couldn’t resist the challenge.He needed her out of the house long enough for Barrel to enact the first part of their plan, and the fact that it was drizzly and cold out would also help ensure that it went smoothly.

Shock narrowed her eyes at him.Few things were worse than being called a wimp, especially over something that really wasn’t a big deal.And while Lock did have better eyesight than her, her aim was certainly nothing to sneeze at and she wasn’t going to let him think otherwise.“Alright, fine, you’re on!” she decided, snatching the second slingshot out of his grip and heading for the ladder that led up to the crows next on top of the treehouse.Lock climbed up after her, but not before shooting Barrel a thumbs-up and a wink, which the little ghoul returned before hurrying into the kitchen.He took the bottle of poison out of the icebox poured some into one of three mugs, taking careful note of which one had been tainted.He returned the poison to its place and pulled out some milk, which he poured into a cauldron to warm up on the stove, keeping his ears open for sounds of his cohorts’s return.He had learned a few skills in the kitchen lately and knew how to simmer the milk at a very low heat and stir it nonstop to keep it from burning, and after awhile he heard the attic door swinging open.

“I _told_ you I could hit more than you!” came Shock’s voice from the living room, sounding quite pleased with herself.

“Yeah, yeah, I _let_ you win…” grumbled Lock, trying to sound disgruntled when in actuality he _had_ let her win.He wanted her in a good mood, as it might increase her susceptibility to following his suggestions.

“Yeah right, you liar.” Shock said smugly.

Lock pulled an annoyed face. “I would have caught up to you but you started whining about how cold and wet you were getting.If we stayed out there longer I would have won!”

“You just keep telling yourself that, devil boy.” she smirked.

“Hey, I made hot chocolate, you guys want some?” Barrel said loudly from the kitchen doorway.He and Lock were hoping that being out in the chilly weather would make hot chocolate sound appealing to her, and happily their hopes weren’t in vain.

“Wow, good work, midget, I guess you’re not totally useless.” said Shock, and Lock snickered.“Yeah, I’ll take some.It’s about time you babies started cooking more.I’m gonna go change.” she announced, then headed to her room for some dry clothes.

“Did you get it ready?” whispered Lock as he hurried over to his littlest friend.

“Yeah, it’s all set!” giggled Barrel, and he climbed up on the footstool to stir the chocolate powder into the milk.Lock looked into the mugs and chose one without the poison, then Barrel filled all three mugs up and took the other non-tainted one for himself.He took the poisoned one in his other hand and went to the living room, and before long Shock joined them on the sofa where they’d flipped on the battered old television.

“Here you go,” said Barrel as he handed her the poisoned mug, staring intently at the screen and trying desperately not to laugh.Lock watched her out of the corner of his eye, and as soon as she took her first sip he couldn’t stop the wide, wicked grin from spreading across his face - but he also scooted a little bit farther away from her on the sofa just in case the recipe hadn’t been exaggerating when it used the word ‘explosive’.

Shock tasted nothing amiss and the first few sips went down easy… but then something went wrong and her eyes widened, her lips still on the edge of her mug.There was a sudden weird sensation brewing deep in her guts: first a sort of tight, tingly feeling, and then a series of motions that could only be described as her intestines rippling in waves… and then an extremely unpleasant churning.She lowered her mug and brought her hand to her abdomen, and Lock suppressed his wicked grin as he looked over at her.

“What’s the matter?” he asked in what he hoped was a neutral voice, but Barrel didn’t even try to hide his giggling.

Shock couldn’t reply.The churning had gotten so violent that she was afraid to move, but then the roiling sensation moved lower and she realized that getting to the bathroom - NOW - was an emergency.“I gotta go!” she said abruptly, dropping her almost-full mug on the floor and darting to the bathroom, and the boys both howled with laughter.She just barely made it to the toilet in time, and despite her condition she could hear Lock and Barrel still cackling from the living room.She gritted her teeth in rage as the poison worked its way through her system, and despite her discomfort she tried to figure out how they had figured out her trick and how they had managed to turn it around back on her.Then she heard the rapping of knuckles against the bathroom door and she clenched her knees tighter together and pulled her dress down farther over them.

“Hey Shock!You spilled your cocoa all over the floor!” came Lock’s teasing voice from the other side of the door, and Shock wished more than anything that she could strike him down dead with her thoughts alone.

“Want us to make you some more?” giggled Barrel, and he was just as guilty and Shock wanted him just as dead as Lock.

“YOU’RE BOTH DEAD MEAT!You’re gonna end up maggot food by the time I’m done with you!” she screamed from the toilet, but the boys only laughed more.

“Just don’t break the toilet, okay?” chortled Lock, and Barrel laughed so hard that he snorted repeatedly through his little pug nose.

“I’M GOING TO MURDER YOU SO HARD!” Shock shrieked, but the boys just gave one another a high-five before heading back to the living room.

“That’ll teach her to try and poison us!” Lock said as he stepped over her fallen mug to resume his position on the sofa.

“Yeah!” agreed Barrel, also avoiding the spilled hot chocolate just in case it could soak in through skin - he didn’t want to risk any of it getting on his bare feet.

…

Shock was in the bathroom for nearly two hours.Once she was reasonably certain that the danger was over and it finally felt safe to leave the toilet she steeled herself to face her cohorts, who were no doubt still cracking up at her expense.She sighed to herself as she flushed the toilet and washed her hands, then pushed open the bathroom door and went back to the living room with her jaw firmly set and her expression steely.Her boredom had certainly been cured, just not in the way she’d been planning.She still couldn’t figure out how Lock and Barrel had figured out her plan - they were so stupid, how was it even possible for them to pick up on her scheme?Clearly she would need to be more careful next time - and there would _definitely_ be a next time, she decided right then and there.


End file.
